Haunted aka Totally Bugged
by PisceanGirlPower
Summary: My 1st ever fic...4give me for the extreme awfulness! Suze is 20, engaged to Jesse & moved in with him! What happens when she chances upon Paul & his new GF? A new lesbian ghost has popped up to create trouble for Suze! Rated M for one sex scene.
1. Meeting A LongLost Buddy

A.N.: I've made Paul a good guy in this fanfic ……. (pause for the fact to sink in) …… okay, I hope it's sunk in by now! All the characters are quite different from the original, by hey…people change!! Hope you enjoy, and PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!

-pisceangirlpower

Set a couple of years after _Heaven Sent_.

One TALKING TO A LONG-LOST BUDDY 

Oh my God. I still can't believe that Jesse and I are engaged to be married in a month! Mrs. Susannah de Silva. Ah, I so love the sound of that. And guess what – we've already moved in together! But the sad part is that there are two bedrooms in the apartment – one big and one slightly smaller. The smaller one's the guestroom. At least it's supposed to be. But although we've moved in together, Jesse still insists that we can't share a room till we're married. So he's pushed me into the master bedroom and is himself residing in the guestroom. What a gentleman. Grrr.

Anyway, let me tell you how Jesse proposed. We were on a date at The Diner, the posh new place that opened up a few months back. After we were done having dessert, Jesse paid the bill and we got out and walked out towards Jesse's Ford (yes, Jesse got a car). There, just outside the car, Jesse got on his knees and pulled out the most beautiful diamond ring from his pocket, thrust it out at me, and went, "_Querida_. Will you marry me?" My reaction had been to tell him to stand up. He got a puzzled look on his face, but stood up anyway. Then I practically jumped at him, hugged him, and gave him the longest kiss I ever had. "Of course I will," I had said, continuing to hug him. It was totally romantic.

We've got this gorgeous little apartment five minutes away from the beach and fifteen minutes away from Andy's house. The view of the ocean from my window is even better than the view from the window back in my old room. We were looking at an apartment further away from home – about an hour's drive – but Mom got all teary-eyed, saying that she couldn't bear to be so far away from her little baby, so we settled for this apartment. Except that I am not a little baby anymore – I'm _twenty_, for God's sake.

I've just finished my college at the Father José Missionary College, Connecticut. Jesse finished from there a year ago after giving his SATs, and now he's studying to be a paedriatician – a kid's doctor. It's summer break for both of us right now.

Right now, it was three in the afternoon and blazing hot. To keep the room cool, we'd drawn the curtains and put the air conditioner on full blast. Jesse and I were on the couch, watching _The Godfather_ for about the thirteen trillionth time, and sharing a big bowl of buttery popcorn. _The Godfather_ is Jesse's all-time favorite, though I don't feel all that thrilled about it. But whatever. I was sitting on one side of the couch, with Jesse lying down, his head in my lap. I was running my fingers through his hair.

"Just pause the movie, would you, _querida_?" said Jesse, catching hold of my hand, giving it a light kiss, and sitting up. "I'm going to go and get myself some water. Would you like some, too?" "Uh-huh," I said, leaning over and reaching for the remote control to pause the movie. "Pop a couple of ice cubes into my glass. And come soon."

As soon as Jesse went into the kitchen, the phone rang. "I'll get that!" I called, receiving the call. "Hello?" I said into the phone. "Suze?" said an oddly familiar masculine voice over the phone. "Speaking," I said. "Who's this?" "Have you forgotten me so soon, Simon?" said the voice. "I don't know who you are," I said. "Goodness Suze, I'm hurt," said the voice, laughing. "How could you forget ol' Paul Slater?"

"Paul!" I cried. "Hi!" Unlike before, Paul is a good buddy of Jesse and mine since the Winter Formal. "Hi!" said Paul, laughing. "Long time, no see, huh?" "Oh yeah!" I said. "Hey, wait a minute. How'd you get my number?" "Oh," said Paul. "I dropped in at your old place a few days back, but Brad said you'd moved. So I got your new number from him." "Oh," I said. I heard a whiny female's voice cry out to Paul. "Hey who's that?" I asked Paul. "Oh, just my girlfriend," said Paul, nonchalantly. "Christie. She wants to speak to you, so I'm putting it on speakerphone."

"Hello, Suze!" Christie's voice came over the line. "Hey…Christie," I said. "You visiting Paul?" I asked. "Oh, no!" said Christie, laughing. "We've moved in!" "Oh!" I said. "_Oh!_" Christie laughed.

"Who is it, _querida_?" cried Jesse from the kitchen. "It's Paul!" I replied. "And his girlfriend Christie!" Jesse didn't say anything to that. He just walked out of the kitchen with two glasses of water in his hands, an amused expression on his face.

"Suze!" cried Christie. "And who's that guy in the background?" "Oh," I said. "That's Jesse, my boyfriend. Oh, I mean my fiancé. We've moved in too." Christie gave a loud, high-pitched squeal at this. "Wow!" she said. "Congratulations!" "Thanks," I said. "So, you settled in well with Paul, and stuff?" I asked. "Oh, yeah!" said Christie. "We're having a blast together! Paul's a total dynamo. You know. In bed," She giggled. I was a little taken aback by this. But not to be deterred, I replied, "Oh. I see. Too bad _my_ guy refuses to share rooms with me until the W-Night," I took care to lower my voice at this, because I did _not_ want to offend Jesse. And he totally takes offence at these kinds of things and even stops speaking to me sometimes. "So, I'm still, you know. The twenty-year-old virgin. Because I've been going out with him since I was sixteen. And I couldn't possibly cheat on him, however desperate I might be for sex." "OH!" cried Christie, shocked. "That's ridiculous!" "Yeah, I know," I said. "But at least the wait's not long. Just…a month." "Ooh," said Christie. "Are we invited to the wedding?" "Of course," I said, laughing.

"So…where's the wedding?" she asked. "Oh," I said. "My mom was insisting on having a grand affair at some posh hotel, but I made her settle for a beach wedding." "A beach wedding!" squealed Christie. "Oh. My. God. YOU ARE SO LUCKY!" "I know," I said, unable to stop myself from laughing hard. "So, it's at this beach, right?" she asked. "Which beach?" I asked. "Why, the Carmel Beach, of course! Or is it too far from your place?" "No way," I said. "We live, like, one minute away from it!" "Oh!" said Christie. "Us too!" "Hey, hang on a sec," I said. "I'm putting you on speakerphone. Jesse wants to talk to Paul." "Okie-dokie," said Christie.

Jesse plopped down on the couch next to me. "Hello, Slater," he said into the speakerphone. "Hounding us again, are you?" I heard Paul laughing at this. "Yeah," he said. "Dunno how I survived without doing it all these months!" Jesse laughed at this.

"So," said Christie, coming back to the phone. "I think we should get together at the beach or something sometime!" "Yep," I said. "How about four o'clock today?" "Sounds good," said Christie.

It was three-thirty and I was changing to go the beach. I just got this cutest white bikini set from the new swimsuit shop nearby. It's kind of sexy, and it's got a super-deep neck with a thick, flat metal ring joining the two sides in the front. For me, it was love at first sight. It's totally smart and I'm just dying to wear it in front of Jesse! And guess what – I got it for 40 off on the original price! The original price was $75, and I got it for just $45! I had worn it with my favorite black sarong. Anyway, enough about bikinis.

Jesse knocked on my door. "Come in!" I said. He sauntered in. I've told Jesse a thousand times that you don't need to knock on the door of the person you're living in the same house with, but he still persists with his old nineteenth-century manners.

Jesse was already in his swimming trunks, and he had worn over them the white Adidas tee we had bought for him on one of the shopping trips I'd dragged him for. He was looking murderously hot, as usual, with his hair falling adorably a little into his face.

"Ready to go?" he asked. "Just a sec," I said, brushing my hair. "You go ahead and unlock the car, I'll be there in a moment," I said. "All right, _querida_," Jesse kissed me and went out to start the Ford. I was just about to put on my flip-flops and run out, and that was when that new ghost popped up.


	2. The Ghost

Hello, people, I'm back!!!! Hope u liked my 1st chapter!!! Anyway, enjoy the 2nd chapter, and PLEASE REVIEW!!

-pisceangirlpower

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**Two**

**THE GHOST**

She made quite a dramatic entry.

She was crying. Correction, she was bawling like a baby. She practically jumped on top of me, still crying. "Whoa, whoa," I said, pushing her off me. "What do you want?" "I…me…" the ghost wailed.

She had long blonde hair. Really long, about half-way down her back. She was wearing a tight green T-shirt and casual white cargos. She had nice features was quite pretty.

"Okay," I said, handing her a Kleenex. "Wipe your face and tell me what happened to you." She took the Kleenex from my hand and wiped her face, and blew her nose in it. Then she sniffled. "I-I'm Ariel. Ariel Windsor." She sniffled again. "I l-live, I m-m-mean, _used_ to live, in New Y-York. At least before I _died_!" At this, she burst out crying again. I frowned and handed her another bunch of Kleenex. "Go on," I said. "I can help you if you tell me how you died." "Y-Yeah," she said, still sniffling. Funnily enough, I thought Ariel sounded an awful lot like Christie, Paul's girlfriend. Weird.

Ariel took out a sheet of Kleenex from the bunch in her hands and wiped her nose clumsily. "I-I was on a flight from New York to Carmel to meet my sister. And suddenly th-there was this crazy confusion in the plane with everyone screaming and the people in the seats near the wings running helter-skelter. The pilots lost control of the aircraft. We were bang in the m-middle of the ocean. Then I came to know that one of our wings had caught fire and it was too late to st-stop it. And splash. The plane plunged in-into the water and everyone drowned. I didn't die from drowning, though. Mine and a bunch of other people's deaths were because the fire spread to one of the exits midway as we were careering through the air. Unfortunately, my seat was right near that exit. It tore open and I flew out through the air. And because we were at such a high altitude, I froze to death before my body even landed in the water."

"Tragic," I mumbled. "So you…I mean you as in you in your spirit form, found yourself in the air?" "Yes," said Ariel. "I was terrified out of my life. Literally." She smiled weakly at her feeble joke. "How many survivors?" I asked. "Two," said Ariel, tears beginning to form in her eyes again. "Actually three, because when I was last there, the survivors were a teenager and an adult and a small baby who was totally far away from them, floating on a part of the wing, bawling its head off. I doubt the teenager and the adult even knew the baby existed." "Oh." She sniffled.

"Susannah!" came Jesse's exasperated voice, as he walked into the room, his hands on his hips. He was about to say something, but his voice trailed off when he saw Ariel. He's a mediator too, in case you had forogotten. Ariel just acted as if he didn't exist. She got a surprised expression on her face when she saw Jesse staring at her. "Can he see me?" she whispered to me. "Yeah," I said. "Him and another guy I know. He's my boyfriend." "Hi," said Ariel. "I'm Ariel Windsor. I just died a few hours ago. I came to your girlfriend for help." She held out her hand for Jesse to shake. Jesse shook it. "I am Jesse," he said. "Jesse de Silva. My girlfriend is Susannah Si…" "Call me Suze," I said, cutting him off. "Okay."

"Um…are you going somewhere?" asked Ariel. "Actually, yes," I said. "We're going to the beach with a couple of friends." "Oh," said Ariel. "Can I come along? I mean, not like to follow you or anything, but, you know, there aren't any beaches in New York…" "You can come," I said. "And I know there aren't any beaches in New York. I used to live there." "Oh," said Ariel. "Hey, you got a spare bikini? I can't go to the beach _like this_." She pointed to her clothes. "Um," I said. "Hate to rub it in, but dead people can't change clothes." Jesse stifled a smile at this. "Oh," said Ariel, with a sour face. "Right. I had forgotten I'm…uh…not alive." "Yeah," I said, wincing. "Anyway, let's go."

We walked out of the house and got into the Ford. Jesse (obviously) drove, I (even more obviously) sat in the front seat and Ariel sat in the back seat (which other seat could she sit in, anyway?).

"So…" said Ariel. "You two live together?" "Yeah," I said. "Oh." "Yeah." "So…who are these friends of yours?" asked Ariel. "Our friend Paul," I said. "And his girlfriend, Christie." At this, Ariel just went quiet. "What happened?" I asked, turning my neck to look at her face. "Christie…as in Christie Windsor?" said Ariel asked in a funny voice. "Um," I said. "I don't know her last name, actually. Why? Is she related to you?" "She's my sister." "Oh." "And I don't think she knows of my death yet." "Probably not. But she's bound to get the news within a couple of days." "Couldn't you tell her?" "Are you crazy? She'll think I'm a freak. And besides, I barely know her!" I said. Seriously. Why do ghosts always have to be so weird?

"Oh…okay," said Ariel. "Nice cargos, by the way," I said, trying to cheer her up. "You think so?" she said, instantly distracted. "Yeah, sure!" I said. "Where'd you get 'em?" "SoHo!" she said. "20 off!" "Wow," I said. "Steal!" "You stole those pants?" asked Jesse, in a shocked voice. "No, silly!" I laughed. "By 'steal', I meant 'it's a steal', as in 'you got it really cheap'!" "Oh," said Jesse. "I see."

"Hey Paul!" I called. Paul and Christie had already spread out a huge sheet in the sand and were sitting on it, laughing and talking. "Hey!" said Paul, getting up and running up to us. He saw Ariel and tried not to look shocked, as if he knew her from a picture or something. But apparently because of Christie, he acted as if he couldn't see Ariel.

At first, I barely recognized Paul. He had changed so much! He had colored his hair a light brown and now you could see patched of his real golden hair showing up in between. His hair was quite long too, now – at least a couple of inches below his ears. He was even more tanned than he used to be, and it looked like he had worked hard on his abs and biceps (I could make out because he was shirtless).

Paul ran towards us and hugged me. "Man, it's been weird without you guys!" he laughed. "Come on." He gestured towards their sheet on the sand. We walked towards the sheet, and removed our flip-flops and sat down on it.

"So," I said to no one in particular, but a little more to Christie. "Christie. What's up?" "Nothing much!" said Christie, smiling. Just then Ariel, who had sat in the car while we had gotten out of it and gone into the beach, had gotten out and begun to walk towards the beach. But she had barely taken five steps when she changed her mind and went back to lean against the car. She looked quite sorrowful.

"So…where did you live before you settled in with Paul?" I asked Christie, trying not to pay attention to Ariel. "Oh," said Christie. "I lived at Evergreen Hill," said Christie. "Attended Robert Stevenson's." "Cool," I said. "How'd you meet Paul?" "Oh," Christie laughed. "We didn't exactly have a normal meeting! It was something like this. We were both at the café up town with our own friends, and we were standing at the counter. Then Paul took his milkshake from the counter guy, and yeah…you guessed it right. He spilled it all over my cashmere sweater. I was totally furious at him. I swear I could have murdered him right there and then! Then we started coming to the café more and more everyday, until he said hi one day. And that was when it started. We became close friends, and then he asked me out. And here we are!" "Oh," I said. "Interesting." To be honest, I wasn't paying 100 attention to what Christie was saying, because my mind was on Ariel.

Ariel was fidgeting around and pulling the strings on her cargos. She looked as if she was trying very hard to not cry. Oh no. I hoped she would try hard enough, because I didn't have any Kleenex on me right now.

"I'm going to the shore," annouced Paul, getting up. "Anyone interested?" I waited to see if Christie volunteered. When she didn't I jumped up. I needed this opportunity to tell Paul about Ariel.

As we walked to the shore, Paul immediately asked me about Ariel. "Who's that ghost who ws leaning up against your car?" he asked. "She looks terribly familiar!" "Yeah," I said. "Betcha must have seen her in some photo album of Christie's or something, 'cause she's Ariel Windsor, Christie's sister." "Sister?" asked Paul, dumbfounded. "Yep," I said. "She came wailing to me as I was getting out of the house to get to the beach. Told me that she died a few hours ago when her plane's wing caught fire and crashed into the ocean." "Flight!" cried Paul. "Right! I remember now! Christie had told me that she'd be visiting for a couple of days from NY! Oh my God. Christie's gonna flip when I tell her this." "You're not," I said, sticking my left foot into the water and watching the frothy wave lick my toe.

"What?" he said. "You're not going to tell her," I repeated. "And why not?" asked Paul. "Paul, Paul, Paul," I said. "You've really lost your sharpness. Have you forgotten that your girlfriend has no clue what a mediator is?" Paul got a blank look on his face. "Yes she does," he said, almost causing me to look up at him instantly. "What?" I said. "You _told_ her?" "Um, no, not exactly," he said, fiddling with his hair and going a bit pink, as he did when he was a little uncomfortable. "Sh-she's one herself, you see." "WHAT?" Now he DEFINITELY caused me to look at him. "Christie's a mediator, too." "Oh. My. God. Are you serious?" I asked, quietly. "Yes," he said. "More than I've ever been in my life."

"Wow." I said, quite dumbstruck. "So…I guess the four of us can hang around a lot. You know. The mediator company." "Yeah," Paul smiled. "Anyway, does this sister of Christie's know that Christie can see and talk to ghosts?" "Doesn't appear like it," I said. "I mean, I don't know for sure, but that's what I think." "Okay. What's her name, anyway? Christie told me, but we hardly spoke about her." "Ariel," I said.

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HOPED U LIKED THE CHAPTER!! I promise I'll update as soon as I'm done with the 3rd chapter. Sorry if I'm a little slow writer, but I'm trying to write as fast as I can, and I'm having Finals right now. just 3 more papers to go…I'll be done then!! Then I'll write faster & more, for sure!!

_**AND PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!**_

-pGp 


	3. And Things Go On

Okay, people, I'm sorry if I left a conversation half-way in the second chapter. I'm continuing from there in the third chapter. We left off at:

"_Okay. What's her name anyway? Christie told me, but we hardly spoke about her." "Ariel," I said._

Enjoy the chapter…AND PLEASE REVIEW!!!!

**DISCLAIMER: All characters except Ariel & Christie Windsor and a couple others belong to Meg Cabot.**

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THREE 

"Ariel Windsor?" asked Paul. "Yeah." I said. I spotted a pretty white half-buried seashell in the sand, with a bit of blue gleaming in it. I bent down and picked it up. "So Christie's a mediator," I said, analyzing the whole situation. "And her sister's a ghost who most likely has no clue about power of her sister's. So basically, we need to keep Ariel away from Christie's eyesight." "Yeah," said Paul. "Definitely. At least until Christie gets formal news of her death. Which is probably gonna be tomorrow morning, 'cause there's no freaking way that the papers and news channels won't get hold of this story." "Yep."

"So…I think you should go to your car using some excuse and tell that girl to _keep her butt off the beach_." "Okay," I said, laughing at Paul's expression. "I'll get there now." I turned around and walked towards where Jesse and Christie were sitting on the sheet in the sand. When I reached there, I bent down next to Jesse and said, "Jesse, I think I forgot my headband in the car, so can you give me the keys?" "Yes," he said, digging around in his pocket for the keys. He took them out and gave them to me.

I took the keys from Jesse and ran to the car. Ariel was still standing there, moping away. "Oh, come on," I said. "Stop sulking, Ariel. Death isn't the end of the world, you know. We can help you move on. And you never know what awaits you when you move on. A new life, maybe. Probably as a guy, or as a lizard or a plant." "Wow, that really made me feel better," said Ariel, sarcastically. "Anyway, I know you haven't come here to open the car. What do you want?" "You're smarter than you look," I remarked. "I came to ask you if you know that your sister can see ghosts and talk to them, too." "What?" cried Ariel. "Yeah," I said. You heard me right. Christie's like Jesse and me. Not to forget old Paul." "Who's Paul?" asked Christie, looking confused. "Your sister's boyfriend," I sighed, really fed up with these people forgetting each other. "Oh. Yeah. Right. Paul."

"So…you just came to ask me that?" "No," I said. "I also came to tell you something." "What?" "Keep your butt off the beach as long as Christie's there." "Why?" asked Ariel, looking confused again. "ARIEL!" I cried, impatiently. "Christie will flip if she sees you before she comes to know you croaked!" "Um. Okay." "And don't forget." "I WON'T!" "All right, that's about it."

I walked back to the beach. When I got to the spot, I saw that Christie had a pained expression on her face. She was holding her ankle and moaning, and Jesse was inspecting it closely. "What happened?" I ran up to them. "Sand crab," said Paul, absently. "Ooh." I winced. Sand crabs could be very nasty.

"I think we should get Christie home," said Jesse. "Yeah," I said. "I agree. That bite looks bad." "Okay. Can you walk, hon?" asked Paul. "Um," said Christie. "Lemme see. I'll try." As she tried to get up, her pained expression got even more pained. "Possible, but difficult," she declared. "Very difficult." Then she caught my eye, and when she thought Jesse and Paul weren't looking, she winked at me. She was playing some kind of a trick!

"Okay, baby," said Paul, flexing his muscles. "Now's when my work-outs will come in use!" Saying this, he swept Christie off her feet as I gaped at both of them. "Ooh," I whispered to Christie, smiling. "Romantic!" Christie giggled.

"Paul," said Christie, as we all walked out of the beach. "I think Suze and Jesse should come over to our place." "Your wish is my command!" said Paul in a silly way. Wow. I had never seen Paul so much at some other person's service before. But then again, _I_ was the object of his affections when we were in school, but his crush on me had been a weird one. Because you don't usually tie up the girl you love with a rough old rope and gag her in a barn, trapped in the nineteenth century. But he had done this on the first place _so_ that he could date me. But whatever. That's beside the point.

"Come over to our place!" said Paul. "We'll have lemonade or something. With those little paper umbrellas!" I rolled my eyes. Paul's idiotic sense of humor hadn't changed one bit.

Paul came out of the kitchen, holding a black plastic tray with four glasses of fizzy lemonade on it. They all had slices of lemons on the rims, along with the straws that have those little paper umbrellas, just like they serve in cafés and hotels. We were sitting on the red loveseat in the living room.

When I sipped my lemonade, I realized how parched my throat was. The lemonade felt like heaven. "Mmm," I said. "Awesome lemonade, Paul." "Thanks," said Paul, grinning. "Made it myself!"

Just then, I felt a finger tap me on my back. When I impulsively turned my head around, I saw Ariel crouching behind the loveseat. I turned my head around. I bit my lip and hissed "What?"

"Can I _please_ stop hiding?" she begged. "No way!" I hissed. "Who are you talking to, Suze?" asked Christie. "No one," I said, hurriedly. "Just…singing to myself." I gave her a desperate smile. She smiled back at me suspiciously. "Um…I need to go to the loo," I said. "Can you tell me where it is?" "Yeah, sure," said Christie. "Go through that door and turn left." She signaled to the door directly opposite me. I got up and walked towards the door. I signaled to Ariel to follow me quickly. She got up and whenever Christie wasn't looking, she quickly scurried after me.

Finally, we reached the bathroom. We both heaved a sigh of relief. "Okay," I whispered to Ariel. "Now tell me what you want." "I want to show myself to Christie!" whined Ariel. "Sshh!" I said. "But why?" "Because I can't bear to wait until tomorrow! We don't even _know_ if the story will be there in the papers!" "It will!" "All right. Even if it is, what's the guarantee that Christie will read it?" demanded Ariel. I sighed. This was an exceptionally stubborn ghost to deal with.

"Look," I said, trying to sound reasonable. "I'll make sure Paul makes her read it, okay?" "No!" said Ariel, like a kid fighting with his mom for a candy. "I want to show up _now_!" "Oh, God, Ariel," I said. "All right." "Yay!" said Ariel. "But you've gotta promise you won't shock her too much." "Promise," said Ariel, quickly. "Now can I meet her, please?" "Yeah," I sighed. "Come on, follow me."

When we walked out, Christie turned to smile at me, but as soon as she saw Ariel, her face turned pale. "A-A-Ariel?" she managed to stutter. Ariel gulped. "Yeah, Chris. It's me." Ariel walked slowly to Christie's loveseat and sat down next to her. Christie looked at her as if she couldn't believe her eyes. Ariel hugged her.

I think that's when the full impact of the situation hit poor Christie. She started crying. "Ariel!" she cried. "You're dead! How?" "I know," whispered Ariel. Then the conversation went like this:

Ariel: "My…my flight crashed into the ocean when I was on my way here."

Christie: "What? Your flight crashed?"

Ariel: "Yes." (still whispering)

C: "Oh my God. I can't believe this. I'm dreaming, right?"

A: (pauses) "Um, no."

C: (beginning to spurt more tears) "Oh God…this sucks!"

A: "Talk about it. And how come you never told me of this 'gift' of yours?"

C: "Gift? What gift?"

A: "Of being able to see and speak to ghosts."

C: "Oh. That. I didn't think you'd believe me. I thought you'd think I'm some crazy psycho freak."

A: "No way. You were my idol. I mean, you _are_ my idol. But I guess now I'll have to stop dressing like you. Because, like Suze said, ghosts can't change clothes."

C: "Wha-at? _Suze_ is a mediator?"

A: "Uh-huh! She's the one I went to when I died."

C: "Oh…oh."

A: "So…I guess I can still stop over, right?"

C: (laughing weakly) "Yeah."

A: "So…show me my room!"

Christie got up (suspiciously enough, she seemed to be able to walk perfectly…) and took Ariel to the guestroom. When they were gone, Paul and Jesse simultaneously looked up at me with an expression that demanded an explanation. "Okay, okay," I said, stepping back. "Don't look at me like that! I'll tell you everything!"

After I told Paul and Jesse everything, both of them looked impressed. _Impressed_?! Is the male species truly _abnormal_?! I mean, which human being looks impressed at such situations?

"Okay," I said. "Are you satisfied now?" "Yeah," said Paul. "Yes." Jesse said. Ariel and Christie still hadn't come out of the guestroom. I guess they were having a sister-to-sister chat or something. "Um, Paul," I said. "I think we'll get going now." "What? Wait for sometime! You can't leave so fast! We've met after such long time!" he protested. "We can meet again sometime later," I said. "Give me your number." Paul quickly ran into his bedroom and came out with a scrap of paper and a pen. He scribbled his number on it and gave it to me. "I'll call," I assured him. "Come on," I said to Jesse. "Let's go."

Jesse and I were in the kitchen, making pasta for dinner. Okay, correction. Jesse was in the kitchen, making pasta for dinner, I was doing the dishes at the sink. We can't afford a dishwasher yet.

"Today was quite a day, wasn't it?" I said, scrubbing a greasy bowl. "Oh, yes," said Jesse, stirring the steaming pasta on the stove. "It most certainly was." "Jesse," I said, carefully. "Can I ask you for something?" "Anything for you, _querida_." "_Anything_?" I said, even more carefully. "Name it," said Jesse, patiently. "Sleep in today." "Sleep in?" Jesse asked, looking confused. "I live here, _querida_." "Jesse," I said, impatiently. "You know perfectly well what I mean." "No, I don't," said Jesse, laughing. "Jes_se_!" I cried, flinging myself at him, soapy suds and all. "Suze!" laughed Jesse. Suze? Jesse had called me Suze, not Susannah! Something was weird here.

"Did you just call me Suze?" I asked, just to confirm. "Yes, _querida_," said Jesse. "I'm quite tired off calling you by such a lengthy name now. So I've decided that now on it's going to be Suze. Short and sweet." "It's your call!" I laughed. So someone had finally knocked some sense into Jesse's head. "Anyway, _please_ sleep in today!" I begged, hugging him. "_Querida_," said Jesse, stroking my hair. "Why are you asking? You know exactly what I am going to say. And anyway, the wait _is_ quite short. One month isn't much. Engaged couples usually had to wait for their wedding for about five to six months back when I was little." "Yes," I grumbled. "But that was, like, way back in the 1800's! It's 21st century now." "Suze," said Jesse, still sounding patient. "Please. I am not saying no. I'm just asking you to wait." "All right, all right," I grumbled. "And not one month. It's exactly 22 days from today." "Yes, yes," laughed Jesse. "22 days!"

Why do _I _get to end up with such a righteous boyfriend?

,.:'':.,.:'':.,,.:'':.,,.:'':.,,.:'':.,

Okay! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, people. Sorry if the story is just a wee bit slow right now, but I've got my plot all planned out, and I promise the story will pick up soon. So continue reading!!

AND I HARDLY GOT ANY REVIEWS FROM YOU GUYS THE LAST TIME! 

SO **PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ** REVIEW THIS CHAPTER!!!!!

I'm gonna update ASAP, coz I'm already on chapter 4!!

--PiSCEANGiRLPOWER


	4. Eww!

OHH-KAYY!!

I'm back to bug you people! Haha, just kidding. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed my last chapter of _Haunted a.k.a. Totally Bugged_ (the third one). I was quite free, so I finished it pretty quickly. This chapter's when the plot begins to thicken, so EEEENJOY!!

Thanks for all the reviews guys, especially **angel.by.day-devil.by.night**!! They made me feel real good, so now I'm gonna buck up & write the 5th chapter!!!

Keep readin'-n-reviewin'!!

-pisceanGirlpower

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**TEN DAYS AFTER THE THIRD CHAPTER**

Okay. This so sucks. It turns out that Ariel's a homo. As in, like, LESBIAN. We were getting to be pretty close friends, and whenever I was having difficulty choosing an outfit, she'd come to my rescue with her kewl fashion sense. But unfortunately, she developed a crush on me. She tried to _feel me up_!EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!Let me tell you what happened, exactly.

I was sitting in my room, trying to pick an outfit for tonight's date with Jesse. It was getting late and I hadn't yet been able to choose anything. That's when Ariel appeared. She materialized and sat down opposite me on my bed.

"Hi," I said. "What's up?" said Ariel. "Nothing much," I said. "Just trying to pick a dress for my date with Jesse. I'm not getting too far." "Hmm…" said Ariel, scratching her chin with her thumb. "Let's see. Have you narrowed down on anything?" "Um," I said, pushing aside a couple of dresses. "Yeah. These three." I pointed to a plain but sleek black slinky dress, a dark green tight top, and a pair of navy pants and a cream shirt.

"Hmm…" she repeated. "Looks like you're in dark sort of a mood today!" "Not really," I laughed. "But we're going to a posh sort of place, so I thought dark colors look smarter." "Oh!" she laughed. Then she winced. "What?" I said. "Lose the navy and cream!" she said. "You'll end up looking like some sort of a crazy company manager." "Company manager?" I laughed.

"Seriously," she said. "They're the ones who wear such outfits." "Okay," I said, pushing the pants and the shirt aside. "Which one of these?" I signaled towards the other two outfits.

"Um," said Ariel. "Mind if I have a look at the rest of your wardrobe?" "Go ahead," I said. She went to my closet and opened it. "Hmm." She stood there with her hands on her hips. "This looks sweet," She pulled out one of my cute black strapless wrap tops. "I considered that," I said. "But I dropped it." "Why?" said Ariel, looking astounded. "It's so cute! And it seems quite perfect for the occasion!" "Okay," I said. "I'll wear that, then. But what below?" "Um, would you prefer pants or a skirt?" asked Ariel. "I think I'd say skirt," I replied. "Wanna look seductive today!" Ariel laughed.

"Okay, so how about this?" she took out a knee-length denim skirt with cream-colored strings hanging down the side. "Don't you think that's rather casual?" I asked doubtfully. "Nope," said Ariel. "You don't wanna make it too formal, do ya?" "No…" I said, a little confused. "Go for it," urged Ariel. "Okay," I said, giving in. "I'll change."

"You do that," said Ariel. "I can pick out a couple of accessories for you if you like, by then." "Sure," I said. "They're all in the dressing table drawer." "Okie-dokie." Ariel kneeled down in front of the dressing table and pulled it open.

I put on my skirt, but I was having a bit of a problem with the top. The zipper just wouldn't shut. "Urrgh," I said. "Ariel, could you help me out a bit here? This zipper sucks. It refuses to shut." "Okay," said Ariel, getting up. She walked up to me and tried with the zipper.

That's when she started to get a bit too touchy-feely. She practically put her hand down the back of my bra! I got uncomfortable and asked her what was going on. "Mmmm…" she barely seemed to be listening to me. She was too busy trying to feel me up! EWWWWW!!!!!

"Um, Ariel," I said, pulling away. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" "Be my girlfriend, Suze," said Ariel, not at all hesitantly. "We'll do all kindso f cool stuff! We'll have so much f…" "WHAT?" I cried. "I'm engaged to someone! AND I'M NOT LESBIAN! Go away!" "Huh?…" Ariel stepped back, looking startled and hurt. HURT?! She had no right to be hurt! Her own common sense should have told her that I couldn't possibly be a homo if I'm engaged to my longtime _boy_friend!

Ariel still looked quite bewildered. "What're you waiting for?" I shouted. "Get out! Go away! You could at leats have _asked_ me before trying to…feel me up!" "Chill," said Ariel, taking a step backward. "I'm going!" "Make it fast," I said, menacingly. She disappeared.

That's when Jesse came running into my room. "_Querida_! You were shouting? What happened?" he cried. "Eewwww!!!" I cried. "Ugh!" "What happened, Susannah?" asked Jesse, catching hold of my shoulders and giving me a shake. "She…she's lesbian!" I cried. "What? Who's lesbian? What are you talking about?" he asked. "Ariel!" I cried. "She tried to feel me _up_!" "Feel you up?" Jesse looked confused. "Yeah!" I cried. "As in, touch me! YUCK! And without my permission!"

Jesse's eyes went wide. "You mean…that girl's…" "Yes," I said, sensing his obvious discomfort. "She is." "And she tried to seduce you." "YES!" I cried, impatiently. "I told her to go away." "Okay," said Jesse, still looking like he was trying to make sense of the situation. "We'll deal with this later."

It looked like Ariel was in no mood to leave me alone.

To tell you the truth, after what happened with Ariel, my mood was kind of ruined. I got pretty cranky. We decided to order food in from the nearby Chinese restaurant instead of going out. To fix this grouchy mood of mine, Jesse gave me the apropos medicine – a nice, heavy-duty make out session. And believe it or not, he even gave me a teeny-weeny little bit of under-the-bra action!!!!!! I would definitely have liked more than that, but then beggars can't be choosers.

I was sitting on the couch, channel-surfing. Finally, I got fed up because nothing coming on TV, and just sat there. Jesse came down and sat next to me, and slipped an arm around my waist. I looked up at him in surprise. When I did, before I could say anything, Jesse pulled me toward him in the typically-Jesse way and gave me a pretty intense smooch. I figured that this would definitely be heavy-duty and _very_ satiating when _Jesse_ turned it into a French kiss, because usually _I_ was the one to do that.

I could feel Jesse's fingers moving along the waistline of my skirt, swiftly moving up to the hem of my top. As I had hoped, his hand slid in under my top and upward, into my 34B. I felt like I was going to die with pleasure. I pressed myself closer to Jesse, not missing out on my opportunity to do my own bit of exploration. I slid my hand under his shirt, gently feeling along his abs.

That's when Ariel decided to visit me again. At first, I didn't notice her. Then Jesse seperated his lips from mine and said softly, "_Querida_. Look behind you." I turned around and whom do I see there but Ariel. "Hello, Suze," she said, in a kind of evil voice. "May I join you?" "Three's a crowd. And this is a date." I said, tersely. "I'm not ASKING you," said Ariel menacingly, bringing her face close to mine. Then she smiled in a deceivingly sweet manner.

"Now," she said in a reasonable voice. "Be sensible and be with me, Suze." "I already told you I'm _not_ interested," I said, though gritted teeth. "And I think you would realize that by what I was doing just now. I was trying my hardest to control myself from slapping Ariel. "Oh Suze," said Ariel, shaking her head. "Do you realize what I could do to this boy if you don't listen to me?" She took out a photograph and showed it to me. It was David a.k.a. Doc, my youngest stepbrother! Ariel had abducted him!

"Doc!" I cried, my eyes going super-wide. "Ariel, you bitch! What have you done to him?" "Nothing more than locked him up at an abandoned spot at the moment," she said, casually, folding her arms. "But I very well could if you don't agree to what little I'm asking of you. And to never call me a bitch again." "I'm not letting you blackmail me," I said, shaking my head. "Besides, I don't believe you've even touched my brother."

What I said to Ariel wasn't true at all. I full and well believed that she had kidnapped Doc – she could definitely stoop to such a level – but this was my trick. If I told her that I didn't believe her, she was guaranteed to show me or at least tell me where he was, just to make me believe that her threats weren't empty. And this trick had just the effect I wanted it to.

"You don't believe me?" Ariel looked as if she wanted to burst. "Nope," I said. "What could a little skank like you do besides make empty threats, anyway?" "COME WITH ME!" screamed Ariel. "NOW!" "All right," I said. "Lead the way." When Ariel turned to walk, I quickly whispered to Jesse to follow us. He got up and came after me and Ariel.

Where Ariel took us was a place not far from home. It was an abandoned old house, one of the near-two-centuries-old places, like Andy's house. Ariel led us to its outhouse. It had a rickety old door, with the paint peeling off piteously. It appeared like the paint was cream in color, but there was no sure-fire way to find out for definite. Ariel pushed open the door with her elbow and there I saw Doc, hand and feet bound, gagged with a dirty-looking piece of cloth. He was asleep, lying about five feet away from the door.

"You bitch!" I barked in Ariel's face, running up to Doc. She merely grinned at me. "You believe me now?" I didn't answer her question. I kneeled down next to Doc, untied his gag, and took his head in my arms. Doc was now sixteen, and had grown to be quite good-looking. He had colored his hair mahogany, and his freckles had practically disappeared and his skin was nicely tanned since Dopey a.k.a. Brad, and Sleep a.k.a. Jake, had been dragging him to the beach to teach him surfing daily since the past two weeks.

"Doc!" I called to him, shaking his head. "Doc! Wake up! it's me, Suze." When he didn't wake up, stroked his face and whispered into his ear. No results. I shook his head again. This time he woke up, with a jerk.

"Huh?" he opened his eyes and sat up with a jerk. "Where am I? What happened?" "Oh, Doc," I said, hugging him. "Suze?" he said, joyfully, hugging me back. "Yes," I said, still hugging him. Ariel was _so_ dead for doping up my brother and dumping him in some stinky outhouse.

"Suze," said Doc, trying to let go of me. But I didn't. I needed to keep hugging him so I could quickly whisper my plan to him without Ariel suspecting me. "Where are we? Jesse?" He looked at Jesse, who gave him a small, silly smile. "Doc," I said. "Everything's gonna be okay." "B-But…" "Just listen to me." I was whispering as low as I could. "Try as quietly as you can to escape from here. If you don't manage, don't worry. I'll be back to rescue you, tomorrow evening tops. But remember, _be as quiet as possible_." "Y-Yes," said Doc. "Okay, Suze." "And pretend to get all dopey now, and act as if you've gone to sleep." "Yeah." I let go of him and put on an emotional look. I gave a little sniffle to make the whole effect look more real.

"You slut," I hissed at Ariel angrily as I walked past her. She gave me another diabolical grin. "Come on, hon," I said to Jesse, catching hold of his hand and pulling him along. Jesse shrugged in a surprised way and came along. We walked straight home.

When we were home, Jesse said, "_Querida_, don't you think we should have done something over there?" "What did you want me to do?" I asked, indignantly. "Untie him and throw the rope in Ariel's face? I'm _so, so, so_ gonna murder that skanky bitch!" "Calm down, Susannah," he said, catching hold of me and making me sit down on the couch. I looked up at him in irritation. However, if Jesse noticed my irritation, he showed no signs of it.

"Suze," he said. "Now listen to me. There is no point in getting all huffed up about this. What you need to do is use your brain to get David out of there." "Well," I said. "I do have a way." "What?" asked Jesse. "Besides socking that girl in the nose," he added quickly. "No," I said. "Surprisingly, I have a way other than that, this time. When I was hugging Doc, I told him to try and escape from that place if he could. I said that if he was unable to get himself out, I'd definitely rescue him by tomorrow evening, somehow." "And how exactly do you plan to do so, _querida_?" asked Jesse, looking faintly amused. But this time, I was serious and I had a good reply to give him.

"I purposely told Ariel that I didn't believe her when she told me that she had kidnapped Doc so that she would lead me to the place where she'd kept him," I said, cunningly. "And to my delight, she did just that. So now that we both know exactly where Doc is, our job will be a great deal more possible. What I'm going to do is this: Tomorrow, I'll call Ariel on pretence of telling her that I've given in to her demand. I'll be doing this simply to get Ariel out of the outhouse where she is sure to be guarding Doc, and to buy you time." "Buy me time? Go on," said Jesse. "Yeah," I said. "So while I'm keeping Ariel engaged, you quickly get to that outhouse and rescue Doc." "Hmm," said Jesse. "Impressive plan. I suggest we do this at around noon, so that if we need any help, we'll have a chance of calling for it." "Yes," I said. "I was thinking about that." "Okay then. But what about David? Ariel might keep him hungry the whole day!" said Jesse, suddenly. "Don't worry about it," I said, smiling. "I grabbed a bunch of Yodels on my way out, and handed them to him."

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OK, guys I hope you enjoyed the chapter, coz I DEFINITELY enjoyed writing it!!!!!!! I realized that this was the longest chapter till now! And I kept my promise that the story would pick up from here onwards.

So I'm expecting a good number of reviews from you people after posting this chapter!! The next chapter's gonna be titled 'It's Sooo Easy to Pull Ariel's Leg'!!

KR&R – KEEP READIN'-N-REVIEWIN'!!

--pisceanGirlpower


	5. Ariel Is An IDIOT

Hi guys

Here's the fifth chapter!! I just finished with my exams, so now I'm gonna be updating chapters faster than you can read em!!

Anyway, I'm sorry…I had told you guys that the 5th chapter would be named 'It's Sooo Easy to Pull Ariel's Leg'…but I thought this one would be better…so I changed it…hope u don't mind!!

Even if you do mind, the only way to let me know is to review…so YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left off at:

' "_Okay then. But what about David? Ariel might keep him hungry the whole day!" said Jesse, suddenly. "Don't worry about it," I said, smiling. "I grabbed a bunch of Yodels on my way out, and handed them to him." ' _

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Five 

**ARIEL IS AN _IDIOT_**

The next day, my plan was in action. At around quarter past twelve in the afternoon, I used my mediator power of calling upon ghosts anytime I wished, on Ariel. Ariel made no delay in materializing in front of me.

"Hello-o," she said, leaning up against the wall, arms folded across her chest. "Hi Ariel," I said as sweetly and convincingly as possible. "I, um, thought about what you said." "And?" "And…I decided you're right. I…I think we should be together." "Really?" she stood up straight, looking a little incredulous. "Yeah. And I think I acted kind of irrational last night." "I'm glad you finally saw reason, Suze," said Ariel, smiling. "So," I said. "Wanna watch a movie?" "Sure!" said Ariel, jumping on the couch. "What have you got?"

"Um," I said. "How 'bout Mean Girls?" I didn't feel too thrilled about that movie, but I figured that it would be the kind that would interest Ariel. "You mean the Lindsay Lohan one?" asked Ariel, eagerly. "Yeah," I said. "I LOVE Lindsay Lohan!" she squealed. "I'll, um, get it out!" So I went in to get our bundle of movies, and pulled out Mean Girls.

I went out and put it into the player and hopped onto the couch, trying to keep as much of a distance as I could without Ariel noticing.

As the credits rolled onto the screen, Ariel slid her arm around me and shifted in closer. By the time the movie was five minutes over, Ariel was already trying to kiss me. I honestly felt like barfing then. "Um," I said, pushing away. "Ariel, can we, uh, lay off the intimacy for now? I'm not, um, very comfortable about doing it so early." "No problem!" said Ariel, pushing off too, THANKFULLY. "There's no rush."

We watched about twenty-five minutes of the movie when my cell phone rang. It was in my room, so I ran in to get it. Ariel reached out to pause the movie. "No, it's okay," I said hurriedly. "You watch the movie, I'll quickly finish the call and come back."

Just as I had expected, the phone call was from Jesse. I quickly received it. "Hello, _querida_?" said Jesse. "What happened?" I asked, keeping my voice low. "I've freed David!" "Okay, good!" I whispered. "Now come on home! I've kept Ariel occupied by putting on the movie. It's gonna go on for pretty long." "All right," said Jesse. "I'll be there in five minutes." "Okay! Hurry up!" I shut off the phone and went out. Ariel was busy watching the movie, and didn't look like she'd heard anything I had said on the phone, thankfully.

Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. I rushed to open it. Jesse and Doc walked in. Doc looked all flustered and red, with painful-looking red marks on his wrists where he had been bound.

"Hello, Ariel," said Jesse, walking into the living room. "Oh, hi Jesse," said Ariel, in a superior kind of a voice, as if she was greater than Jesse in some way. "Looks like your darling ditched you for me, huh?" "Ariel," Jesse made a face as if he thought Ariel was mentally retarded. It half seemed as if she was. "Don't you see what Susannah did?" "What?" Ariel still looked confused. "I don't understand." "Ariel," I said. "What I did was to keep you out of Jesse's way so he could free my brother, and you so sweetly went along with it all." I couldn't stop myself from grinning.

"What…" said Ariel in disbelief. "You mean…you mean you _tricked_ me?" "Well," I said, folding my arms across my chest. "You refused to listen the nice way. You basically took it way too far when you kidnapped my brother." "You…ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAGGGHHHH!!!" Ariel gave a resounding shriek. It was so high-pitched that Jesse and I had to cover our ears. Then she came close to me and snarled in my face, "You think you'll get away with this, do you?" She gave a bitter laugh. "Well, think again, you little creep. You won't be able to get rid of me that easy. I'll be back. You ain't gonna be able to shake off ol' Ariel!" With this, she disappeared with a vengeful look on her face.

I turned my gaze to Doc, who was looking at me like I had grown hot pink horns on the sides of my head. "W-what happened?" he finally managed to stutter. "You sure you'll believe us if we tell you?" I said, with a hint of amusement in my voice. "I always do," said Doc, matter-of-factly. "Go on and tell me what happened. I think I have a right to know." I hesitated for a moment, even though this was just the kind of reply you'd expect from Doc if you knew him. "Suze," said Jesse. "I think David is right. He has a right know what happened, however unbelievable it might be, because he was, after all, involved in the entire matter." "Okay, okay," I said. "I'll explain."

"Look. A little before a week ago, a ghost called Ariel popped up here." "Oh…so this involves a ghost." Doc said, carefully. "Yes." I said. "Go ahead," said Doc. "Yeah. So this ghost popped up at our place some days back. She was wailing hysterically. She said that her name was Ariel, and that she had died on her flight to Carmel, coz her plane's wing caught fire and crashed into the ocean. Said she was on her way to meet Christie, Paul's girlfriend, who happens to be her sister." "Oh," said Doc. "So Slater's got a girlfriend, huh?" "Yeah," I said. "They've moved in." "Mm-hmm. Go ahead." "So when Ariel came to know that Jesse and I were going to visit them, she convinced me to let her show up in front of Christie, who also, by chance, happens to be a mediator." "And you allowed her," said Doc. "She seemed quite angry with you, by the way you were speaking to her. But she seems like a friendly character by your description?" "Yes," I said. "But that doesn't really have a connection with the story."

"The trouble began when I she was helping me out when I was dressing. I was having a little trouble with my back zipper, so I asked her to help me. And that's when she started trying tricks with me. I realized that she was queer and that she had a crush on me. So I asked her to back off, but she just ignored me. Finally, I got really pissed and screamed at her and threw her out. And she got really bugged out too. Then I guess she somehow found out about my family and stuff, and that's when she decided to blackmail me by threatening to harm you."

Doc looked more than shocked. "Jeesh," he said. "What a girl." "Yeah," I said. "And you know the rest." "Yes," said Doc.

After we told Doc the entire story, the time was about two in the p.m. We all had cold sherbet and sucked on cubes of ice (that was only me, not Doc and Jesse). Then we suddenly realized that we had to call up Andy and Mom to let them know – they must have been worried crazy about Doc all night. But Doc said that Mom and Andy were out of town on some business trip, and Dopey and Sleepy were least bothered, anyway. So after having sherbet, Doc said he needed to leave so he could work on a project. That was due three months later. But that's Doc for you.

Anyway, to make up for the more-or-less-ruined date the other evening, Jesse and I went out to The Diner for dinner, the place where he had proposed to me. This time, too, we went for a nice, posh meal. And this time, we had wine too. Dandelion wine. It was quite good.

But this time, Jesse and I went a little mad. After having the first glass, he poured himself two more. I pretty much liked the wine, so I poured myself some, too, before Jesse finished it all. So, needless to say, we were plastered by the time the first bottle was over. (A/N: This is for you, Devyani!) We ordered another bottle of the same wine.

Forty-five minutes later, we both came out of The Diner, barely being able to walk straight.

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Hey people,

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!! I meant to make Ariel as hateful as possible, so I hope I did a good job of it! When I was writing the line where Ariel says that she loves Lindsay Lohan, I thought, "OK. That sounds kind of lesbian." Then I was like, "Hey, Ariel _is_ lesbian! So I _can_ put in that dialog."

I realized that this chapter was a little short, but I thought that if I put in the next part in the same chapter, it wouldn't sound as good. So forgive me! I promise the next chapter will be longer.

I'm already on the 6th chapter, & the wait won't be long!!

Keep readin'-n-reviewin'!

--pGp


	6. Telling Paul & Christie

Heya…

Here's the sixth chapter!!!!!!!! The scene where Suze and Jesse get drunk was just a scene I needed to fit in for something that happens later on in the story, & it's specially dedicated to my friend 'D'…she was the one to give me the idea! Anyway, I'll not bore you this time with a too-long A/N, so enjoy!!

--pGp

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SIX Telling Paul & Christie 

The next day, I had woken up at around eight in the morning. I had already had a bath and slipped into a white sundress. I had washed my hair that morning. I still had a slight hangover from the previous night, but it wasn't too bad, fortunately.

"Mornin' Jesse," I said, walking into the living room. He was sitting on the couch, eating an apple, watching an old rerun of Friends. "Good morning _querida_," he said, after swallowing a mouthful. "Listen," I said, sitting on the couch beside him. "Yes?" "Do you think we should tell Paul and Christie this whole deal about Ariel?" "Definitely," said Jesse, after a short pause. "In fact, I don't know how I didn't think of it before." "Hmm…" I said. "So, should we call them up and tell them right now?" "I don't think it would be appropriate to do it over the phone," said Jesse. "I feel that we should call them and ask them to meet us, instead. That is when we will tell them about Ariel."

I paused for a moment to think about what Jesse had just said. "Yeah," I said, after thinking. "We'll do that. I'll call right now to ask them." But as I reached for the phone, Jesse caught my wrist. He laughed. "It is a half past eight in the morning, Susannah," he said. (A/N: I know, I know Jesse agreed to call Suze by her nickname, but just read on!!) "Oh," I said. "How silly of me." I withdrew my hand.

"Hey!" I said, suddenly. "What's the deal with 'Susannah'? I thought you agreed you'd call me Suze." "Yes," laughed Jesse. "I know. But I'm…just too used to it. Bear with me for another few days…I promise I will start calling you Suze by then!" "Okay," I said. "But a few days is all I'm giving you!"

ABOUT FOUR HOURS LATER … AT PAUL & CHRISTIE'S PLACE 

We were all seated comfortably in the living room. I was on my previous spot on the red loveseat, with Jesse sitting beside me. Paul and Christie were seated on the identical beige loveseat opposite ours, the coffee table separating us. I know that their place is way luxurious as compared to Jesse and mine, but a reminder: Paul is _exactly the opposite of_ hurting for money…! Anyway, I'll get to the main part.

"So," said Christie. "What did you guys want to tell us?" "Um," I said. This was getting to be way more difficult than I had bargained for. "It…it isnt exactly believable. So you've got to promise me that you both will listen to me with an open mind. Especially you, Christie." "Yeah," said Christie, smiling. "I promise, Suze. Now go on and tell us."

"Okay." I shuffled around uncomfortably, trying to think how to begin. "Ariel kind of became a negative character in my life." Christie got a weirded-out look on her face. "Negative character? Suze, you're sounding like you're narrating a soap opera!" Was I dreaming or did Christie have a hint of amusement in her voice? Anyway, too bad. I had to make her believe me anyhow.

"Uh," I said, trying to shake it off, "You do know that you're sister's queer, right?" "Um, yeah," said Christie, sounding uncomfortable. "I do." I heard her whisper under her breath – "Oh shit. No no no." "So the other night, I asked her to help me out with a stuck zipper," I continued. "That's when she…uh…started to uh…" I didn't have to say anything further. Christie's body went stiff. Her face turned pale. "Oh God." She buried her face in her hands. "Go on." "And when I rejected her, she got pissed, and she kind of kidnapped my little brother and tried to blackmail me. Then I had to trick her and get my brother free. And…um…I think you understood the rest." I said, feeling more uncomfortable now than I ever had in my whole life. "Yeah," said Christie. "Oh my God. I'm sorry. I'm _so **so** SO_ **_SO_** sorry, Suze! Oh man. What's _wrong_ with that girl. Didn't she stop her stupidity even after…_dying_? She…" Christie's voice started to quiver.

"Oh, God!" I said, alarmed. "Christie! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry!" "No, Suze," said Christie. I could make out that she was trying to choke back sobs. "No. It definitely isn't your fault. It's all my stupid sister's fault. She almost did this before. But then I was there to stop her. But she knew I wasn't there this time. She knew. So she did it." She stopped for a moment and let a tear slip down her cheek. Then she spoke. This time, her voice was not quivery at all. It was strong, clear, commanding and…angry.

"ARIEL!!!" she roared. Wow. She sounded like an active volcano about to erupt. When Ariel didn't appear for a few seconds, Christie screamed again. "God!" said Ariel, materializing. "Gimme a sec, will ya? I was coming." When she saw that Jesse and I were there, too, her face went cold. "What?" she said to Christie, in an equally cold and snide voice. Christie looked so pissed off that I wouldn't be surprised if smoke started pouring out of her ears the next moment.

"Don't you talk to me like that," she snarled at Ariel. "I'm your elder sister, and you gonna gimme some respect." "Yeah, yeah," said Ariel, nonchalantly. "You…seduced…her." "Yeah," said Ariel, as if Christie were accusing her of stealing candy. "So? Now don't begin acting as if you're totally oblivious to everything!" Ariel said, rudely. "Ariel," said Christie, as if she was trying not to slap Ariel. "WHAT? If you're gonna lecture me on makin' a move on this chick, lemme tell you one thing," she dropped herself on the scarlet bean bag perpendicular to the loveseats we were sitting on. "I'm gonna _tune out_, baby," She gave Christie a sarcastic smile.

"That's it," Christie said under her breath, getting up. "You've done it now." "Okay sis," said Ariel, holding up her arms. "Do-ww-own sissy," she said, looking a bit afraid. "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?" she finally cried. "I'm gonna exorcise you, you mannerless fool," she said, under her breath again. "Exo-what?" said Ariel, giving Christie a look as if she had gone crazy. "EXORCISE!" she screamed.

"What's that supposed to even mean?" asked Ariel. "Nothing _you_'d understand," said Christie, nastily. She went into the kitchen and came back with four candles in her hands, and a matchbox. She put down three of the candles on the floor and lit one of them. She dripped some its wax on the floor and placed it in the wax. Then she picked up another one, lit it with the alread-lit candle and did the same she had done for the previous one. In this way, she lit all four candles and placed them around her sister in a square formation. All this while, Ariel was staring at Christie as if she had well and truly lost it. But she had a lot to worry about. Christie was going to EXORCISE her. And in mediator language, that means MURDERING A GHOST.

After placing the candles around Ariel, Christie stood up. "Don't move," she instructed Ariel. "Yeah, whatever," mumbled Ariel. Christie went into the bedroom and came back with a small blue box in her hand. She opened it and took out a bit between her fingers. She bent down and scattered a little between each two candles. Then she stood up, shook her hands, and started chanting a string of strange words in Spanish. I guess that's why Jesse jumped up from the couch and ran to Christie. Because it was Spanish, I mean.

"What are you doing?" he cried, interrupting Christie's chant. "I'm exorcising my sister." Christie said, coldly. "And now if you don't mind, please step aside and let me complete it." "But you can't exorcise her for such a little thing!" Jesse protested. Paul and I looked on, completely and utterly flabbergasted. "I already warned her the previous time that I'd do something drastic! And now I am only doing what I promised her!" cried Christie, angrily.

"Jesse." I got up and walked up to them. "Remember what Father Dominic said. An exorcism, though not entirely righteous, is after all a religious ritual, and it would be morally wrong to stop one, however unjustified it may be." I whispered into his ear. Jesse's face fell. "You're…you're right, _querida_." Saying this, we both walked back and took our places on the loveseat.

"Thank you, Suze," mumbled Christie. She went back to her Spanish chant. Now Ariel began to look a bit intimidated. "Wh-what are you doing, Christie?" Her sentence began in a normal tone and ended in a scream. "_Christie_!" she shrieked. She tried to step out of the circle of candles and powder, but however hard she tried, she remained helplessly trapped inside like an animal trapped in a cage. She was shrieking on top of her lungs now. But it was useless – Jesse, Paul, Christie and I were the only ones who could hear her, and none of us were about to come to her assistance immediately. Personally, I was a bit shaken by Christie's temper, but I think the way she was using was the only one to put Ariel straight.

Red tendrils of dust began to materialize from the floor. They enveloped Ariel, and she began to scream louder and cough. But the dusty fumes seemed to be affecting only her. She started wriggling and shrieking, "CHRIS! CHRISTIE!! PLEASE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING (COUGH)?! WHAT IS ALL THIS!! STOP IT!" She had a big bout of coughing. Now it was getting difficult for her to talk, she was coughing so much. Christie's chanting was getting increasingly furious by the moment. She ignored her sister completely. Finally, she stopped, closed her eyes and joined her hands as if praying. The look on her face was astonishingly calm, nothing like it should have been while exorcising her own sister.

Soon, the tendrils turned into a flaming red tornado which began to suck in Ariel. "EEEEEEEE!!!!!" she screamed, her arms and legs flailing as she tried not to get sucked in by the rapidly speeding up smoke. "CHRISTIE!!! PLEASE!! AAAAAH!! SAVE ME! I'M SORRY!! I–" But she never got to complete her sentence. She had been exorcised.

After Ariel's spirit had been sucked in, the tornado of red smoke died down quickly. But an exorcism is a procedure invloving a lot of energy and strength, and that strength comes from the exorciser. In this case, Christie Windsor.

When Ariel had begun to flail, Christie's nose had started bleeding heavily from the impact. As the smoke died down, Christie moaned softly and fainted. As she collapsed, Paul rushed up and caught her. "Christie!" he cried, his eyes lit up with pure worry and concern. But she had already lost her consciousness.

"Take her to the bed," instructed Jesse. "Y-Yeah," said Paul, clearly shaken up. He needed no help in carrying her, as he had earlier demonstrated at the beach. Paul once again single-handedly swept her up and carried her to the bedroom. Jesse and I instinctively followed him.

Christie and Paul's bedroom was a nice one. It was quite chic, with beige walls and black and white wooden furniture and dark wooden flooring. The dresser was a simple but elegant white specimen with a huge elliptical mirror. The luxurious four-poster bed was a similar dark wood like the floor, with a black bedsheet and striped B/W pillows. The bed wasn't made. There was a little beige beanbag lying in one corner, and there was an adjoining balcony. There were clothes strewn everywhere except on the bed. Chinos, tank tops, tees, camisoles, a couple of formal shirts, and even a few specimens of underwear and a few boxers. I saw Jesse catch sight of one of Christie's bras, his cheeks burning. In fact, I was surprised hee hadn't yet had a coronary at the sight of this room.

Paul put Christie down on the bed gently. He reached out for a bottle of water lying on the dresser and opened it. He took some out in his hand and sprinkled it on Christie's face. "No," said Jesse when he realized what Paul was doing. "Let her sleep." Paul looked at Jesse for a moment or two and put away the bottle after screwing its cap on again.

Paul got up from the bed and started to walk out. "C'mon," he said to us. We followed Paul. He slumped down on the beanbag outside and Jesse and I sat on the loveseat again. He gave us a wry smile. "So," he said. "Would you guys like something to eat?" "No," I said. "I think we'll leave." "Yes," said Jesse. "We'll leave now." "All right then," said Paul. "See you around." "Do you need any help?" I asked. "No, I'm good," said Paul. "I'll take care of Christie. She's just passed out. Can't count how many times I've managed with an unconscious _you_, Suze!" He gave me a friendly wink. I smiled. "Well," I said. "Bye, then. Give us a ring once Christie's up." "Yup," said Paul. "Sure. See you then." "Buh-bye,"

It was about three hours since we had returned from Chrisite and Paul's place. I was trying to teach Jesse how to play the Playstation. We had taken Dopey a.k.a. Brad's Playstation, because he was still at college. He had missed a term in the middle because he had an accident in which he broke both his arms, and exactly five ribs and a hairline fracture in his ankle. Ooooh. So basically he was taking summer school so that he could finish off quickly. Actually, he wanted to take the summer break and then start his remaining term, but Andy said no way. So he just took a two-day break after coming back from the hospital, and now he's back at college after endless griping and cribbing at Andy.

Anyway, I was attempting to teach Jesse Tekken 5, the ultimate fighting game which I rock at (I've peeved Dopey plenty because I'm the sole person who defeats him in my sleep at it). Jesse was being a good student, and had already beat me at a couple of matches. But what is there that Jesse isn't good at? Seriously. Sometimes Jesse seriously peeves me out because he's so perfect. But that's another perfect attribute of him is that no one can stay mad at him for more than, like, three seconds. Sigh.

Jesse was just about to give me a final K.O. kick when the phone rang. I got it. "Hello?" I said. "Hello? Suze?" "Paul! Is Christie up?" "Yeah. That's what I called to tell." "Can I speak to her?" "Yeah, sure." While Paul went to get Christie, I told Jesse that she was awake. "Good," said Jesse, looking at the clock. "It's about time she woke up."

"Hi!" Christie's voice came over the line. "Suze, I…I am so sorry!" "Christie!" I said. "Please! Shut up. You don't _need_ to say sorry, I've already told you a trillion times!" "Okay," Christie sighed. "But seriously, my sister is the biggest dumbass on earth." "Hmm…" I said, "_That_ I agree." Christie laughed. "Anyway," she said. "See you 'round. Paul's taking me out for dinner." "Okay," I said. "See ya."

:-.,,.-::-.,,.-::-.,,.-::-.,,.-::-.,,.-::-.,,.-::-.,,.-:

So…HOW WAS THE CHAPTER?!?!?! I thought the exorcism paragraph was cool…but it's you people's reviews that count!!!!! SO REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

& I really loved the fanfic **'IT'S IN THE BLOOD' by angel.by.day-devil.by.night**, so I'd like to tell everyone to read it!! It ROCKS!!

Warning: I WON'T UPDATE UNLESS I GET **AT LEAST **7-8 REVIEWS ON THIS CHAPTER!!!!

--pGp


	7. The Wedding!

Hi people 

**Here's the 7****th**** chapter!!! I hope ya'll are enjoying the story!! My mom's happy that I've finally managed to get my face out of my Mediators, but she doesn't know that I'm simply away from them to write my **_**own**_** story on them!! lol**

**--pGp**

SEVEN 

Now that I was free of stupid old Ariel, I was finally allowed to do what I liked. And in the recent two weeks, I had barely managed to spend any time with Jesse. Neither of us was in the mood to get out of the house nowadays, so we were basically spending our days staying home – watching videos, popping endless packs of popcorn, playing a few board games now and then and making out a lot. Not that I minded (LOL)!

Surprisingly, Jesse is getting a bit bolder nowadays. He slips his hand into my bra quite often, without getting all guilty and awkward, like he used to before (he doesn't quite feel me up through the front – it's mostly at the back – but he's done it a couple of times). I guess he's finally realized that we're _engaged_. But he still refuses to go all the way before the wedding night. But I've kind of stopped caring much. It was just one more day. And at least Jesse wouldn't fuss then. But still, second base is an okay consolation.

Right now, we were making out on the bed of Jesse's room. Jesse always forgets to lock the door when he goes into his room to change. I knew this, so I had slunk into his room quietly and shut the door quietly. He was preparing to put his shirt on. I crept up behind him and slipped my arms around his bare stomach. "Susannah!" he turned around, shocked. I laughed. I did this so often, and Jesse still never anticipated it.

When he looked at me, he didn't take as much time as he usually does to recover from the shock. He gave me a short, flirtatious smile. Ooh. Then, _much _to my surprise, he swept me right off my feet just like Paul had done to Christie, and kissed me passionately. "Mmm…" Delighted, I kissed him right back, of course. He held me in his arms for sometime, then put me down on his bed and sat down himself, and we continued kissing.

I tried to take advantage of the situation by lying down on the bed, but Jesse wouldn't allow it. "_Querida_," he said, sternly. "Just a few more days." "Okay, okay!" I said, sitting up again. "Come here." I enveloped him in a hug. "I love you so much, Jesse," I said, mid-hug. "I love you too, _querida_," said Jesse, hugging me tighter. We separated and continued sitting on his bed.

I leaned backwards and stuck up my bare legs. I was wearing short-shorts and a short top. By now, Jesse had stopped professing his disgust for my short summer clothes, because I guess he had realized I wasn't going to listen anyway. "Hmm…" I sighed. "Exactly four days for the Big Day!" Jesse laughed. "Four days for the day of my eternal doom," he said. I grabbed a pillow and whacked him playfully. Jesse laughed again. We hugged.

(A/N: Awww!)

**A DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING**

The preparations for our wedding were in full swing. Despite my repeated requests to not, my mother had arranged for an elaborate, expensive wooden altar at the beach. The dress code, because it was a beach wedding, was summer clothing.

Mom had insisted that I go over to the beach to have a look at everything today.

"But Mom," I said suddenly. "Don't you think we need some sort of sanction before we can use the beach for a wedding?" "Oh," said Mom, as if I was talking junk. "Don't you think Andy and I thought of that before? Of course we have sanction. Look." She produced a bunch of papers from her purse. "All right, all right," I said hastily. "I got it, Mom. Just asking!" Mom stuffed the papers back into her purse.

The altar was actually quite beautiful. It was light ochre hardwood and had little hand-carved roses in the top. Mom said that there would be a few real big roses to decorate it tomorrow. The ceremony started at eleven in the morning, and ended at five, when it would start to get dark. Father Dom (of course) was going to be the minister. Adam McTavish, one of my best friends, was getting to be the best man. CeeCee Webb, my other best friend, was the best maid. OOOOOHH!! That reminds me, CeeCee and Adam are going steady!! They don't exactly have any plans for marriage at the moment, but that's okay. They're totally devoted to each other.

Tomorrow. Wow. My wedding was so near. Suddenly, it hit me properly. _I'm getting married_.

_**BIG DAY!!!!!!**_

I was over at Andy's house to get ready for my marriage. Mom and I had selected a just-above-the-knee white dress. It had pretty sequins all over, and was strapless. It was the most beautiful dress. It came with a pretty net train which had a beaded lining along the end and elbow-length silk gloves. As I had insisted, no one was to wear shoes for the wedding, but Mom had insisted that Jesse and I wear shoes, at least for the ceremony. So I had bought a pair of silk tie-up shoes in a 40 per cent off sale.

CeeCee was helping too. She looked really pretty in her shin-length white silk dress. She put her long hair in twisty knots above her head. She no longer wore glasses, because she had gotten laser surgery done. So she looked even prettier than before. Her sharp violet eyes glowed with excitement as she leaned over the back of my chair and smiled at me in the mirror. "You look superb, Suze!" she said. "I know!" I said, grinning.

Jesse was getting ready at the apartment, with the help of Father Dom and my brothers. He was going to wear a tuxedo we had selected for him when Mom, him and I had gone wedding shopping.

Mom was helping me out with my makeup. I had put a coat of gloss on my lips, and light blue glitter on my eyelids. My cheeks were bare. Mom said I'm blushing enough already because I'm so nervous. Hah.

After getting ready, Mom, Andy and I called up at our apartment to check with Jesse. Father Dom had received the phone and said that Jesse was ready, too, so we met at the beach in five minutes.

When we got to the beach, no one was there except my fifteen-year-old twin maternal cousins, Allison and Seth Simmons, with their parents – Uncle Cedric and Aunt Cady. All four smiled and shook my hand. They both have identical faces, and brown hair. Thankfully, the weather wasn't too hot or sunny, just right. Yeah, it was certainly quite warm for me with my silk gloves, but I could take them off after the vows.

We saw Paul and Christie (both looking good: Christie in a short black sequined wraparound dress, Paul in white chinos and an olive green summer shirt) parking their car near Andy's and walking into the beach. They walked in with a huge present wrapped in silver paper. "Wow!" I said, taking it from Christie. It was amazingly heavy. "I'm sure you'll love it!" said Christie, practically jumping up and down. I laughed. "I'm sure, too," I said. "Heaviness implies good stuff!"

Doc was already walking about with a video camera in his hand, filming everyone.

Within an hour, everyone was there. The altar was decorated with colossal red roses just as Mom had promised, and a red carpet had been laid leading to the altar. I asked CeeCee the time. It was time for the vows.

Father Dom was standing near the altar, and Jesse was already in his place, after forty-five minutes of meeting all of my extended family, which I'm sure is an extremely satisfying way to spend three quarters of an hour. Not. Andy was trying to get everyone to collect around the altar for the vows. Mom had shoved my bouquet into my hands and run off to help Andy.

Finally, about fifteen minutes later, everything was in place. Father Dom was primping himself up – adjusting his clothes, and putting his crucifixion cross pendant straight. Jesse was just standing there, looking at me, smiling nervously.

Andy cleared his throat, adjusted his tie, and smiled down at me. I smiled back. "Ready?" he whispered. I replied, "More than."

Andy walked me up the carpet and left me next to Jesse with a smile and a wink. I grinned nervously. Father Dom smiled at me, too, and cleared his throat. He removed the holy book from his pocket, from which he was supposed to read out the vows.

After opening it to the correct page, Father Dom cleared his throat again. I half-thought he was as nervous as me. Then he started. He addressed Jesse first.

"Do you, Hector de Silva, vow to love and cherish this woman, Susannah Simon, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health, till death do you part?"

"I do."

Then Father Dom turned to me.

"Do you, Susannah Simon, vow to love and cherish this man, Hector de Silva, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health, till death do you part?"

"I do."

Back to Jesse.

"Do you, Hector de Silva, take this woman, Susannah Simon, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

Back to me.

"Do you, Susannah Simon, take this man, Hector de Silva, to be your lawfully husband?"

I paused for a second, sweating nervously. "I do."

Father Dom turned to the little table behind him and picked up two fancy wine glasses, filled with dandelion wine. _Dandelion wine_. He handed one each to me and Jesse. We took them. Father Dom had made us familiar with the vows once, so Jesse and I knew what to do. We drank one sip each from our own glasses, then linked our arms in such a way that we were standing facing each other, and could drink from each other's glasses. In this way, we took a sip of wine from the other's glass (when I spoke to Father Dom about the rituals, he said that the wine thingy was no longer done, but I had requested if he could put it in, because I thought it was kind of cool). Father Dom had also been planning to say the vows in the Old English, but I told him to please lay that off. He was kind of offended, but I couldn't help it.

After we drank the wine, Father Dom took the glasses from our hands and put them back on the table he had taken them from. He turned to us again. Then he said loudly, so everyone could hear. "I now proclaim these individuals man and wife." Everybody applauded. Then, after the applauding had died down, he said in a softer voice, to Jesse, "You may now kiss the bride." Jesse took a step towards me, slipped his arms around my waist, and kissed me. This time, the applause was way louder than before. Allison and Seth and a couple of my other teen cousins started to whoop, but their parents made them shut up.

Doc quickly took a picture (I know because I saw the flash). After the vows were over, all our relatives came up to us in bunches and got their pictures taken with us. That was pretty much the most boring part of the wedding.

**So…HOW WAS THE CHAPTER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**This chapter was, like, the FUNNEST chapter I've written…so I hope everyone enjoyed it!!!!!!! And don't think this is the ending, because it is FULLY NOT!!! You still have more stuff waiting for you!**

**Anyway…I'd like some ideas from you guys…what **_**you**_** think should be the next thing to happen in the story! So review/message me with your ideas & views about this chapter! I'm already on the 8****th**** chapter, but I PROMISE I will **_**not,**_** I repeat **_**not,**_** post it until everyone gives me a good number of reviews…!**

**So you know what to do! Go on…press that cute little lavender-colored button on your left down corner! You **_**know**_** you wanna!!**

**--pGp**

**P.S.: I hope I made the scene between Jesse & Suze romantic enough!!! Anyway, there's gonna be another scene/s in the next chapter, so I'm gonna try to make it even better!! ----pGp**


	8. Nightfall

**OK people**

**Here is the eighth chapter!! I hope you enjoy it. R&R!**

**--pGp**

**(P.S.: If you are not used to reading very intimate scenes/have a weak stomach, I highly recommend that you skip reading this chapter, or at least the latter part of it.) **

**Eight**

**NIGHTFALL**

Jesse and I have decided our honeymoon destination(s) – Goa (the famous beach state of India) and Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. I had insisted that we _had_ to go to India, because I had heard of all the cool stuff they did out there, like eating spicy corn roasted on coal and stuff. And I heard that in Goa, they have tons of colorful beaded necklaces that are really pretty and really cheap – like 50¢ each or something. We checked with all the airlines, and they say that all the flights from July-August are full at the moment because it's summer, so we've decided to go from September-October.

At around the time we'll be in Goa, there's going to be an awesome Indian festival being celebrated, called _Navratri_, which means 'nine nights' in Hindi. It's a nine-day celebration when all the Indians wear _ghaghra-cholis_, the traditional Indian dresses and do a dance called _Raas Garba_ and _Dandiya. Dandiya _is a dance where everyone dances in twos and each person uses two wooden sticks. Plus, I looked up Indonesia on the Internet, and the cuisine seemed really yummy and mouth-watering. Some of the dishes were called tempé (some kind of sweet soy blocks) and kattang (sticky rice cooked in coconut milk), long tong (rice cooked and served wrapped in banana leaves). And Jakarta is supposed to have some superb malls and a lot of cheap clothes shops, so I was totally going to be spending a bomb out there. Jesse had better get ready for a light/empty wallet.

All right, I know I'm boring you, so I'll tell you what happened after the vows. When our kiss stretched to over six minutes, Father Dom politely went, "Ahem!" and we realized what was happening, and (reluctantly) tore apart. I felt quite sorry, because it had got _very_ hot indeed – Jesse's tongue was practically halfway down my throat.

I WAS FINALLY MRS. DE SILVA. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

By the time the vows were over, it was already two p.m. So everyone quickly ate lunch. The menu was pretty good – a complete Chinese menu: soy noodles, fried rice, spicy Manchurian, chop suey; a bit of Indian stuff thrown in: samosas, biryani (rice cooked the Indian way), raita (curd prepared in the Indian way) and a bit of consolation for the dieters: five bean salad and garden salad. There was also a decent variety to drink: ginger ale, root beer, black-current juice, kvass (a drink similar to beer) and wine. Oh God. Wine was **EVERYWHERE**. Anyway, dessert consisted of chocolate mousse and kiwi pudding, with curly whipped cream on top, and slices of fresh kiwi fruit. Allison, thinking that the drinks would be fattening, had snuck in some Kool-Aid in a Lock-N-Lock bottle (as if Kool-Aid is totally calorie-free, but whatever).

And – take a deep breath – believe it or not, ANDY made, like, 98 per cent of the stuff!! At first, he was insisting that he'd make _everything_ (except the drinks, of course), but Mom screamed at him (I heard them arguing in the kitchen), "ANDY! Are you going to be stuck in the kitchen the entire _day_!? It's our daughter's _wedding_, for the love of God! What you've made is enough. We'll order the rest in! You don't have to slave yourself to prove your cooking skills, we know enough about them!" Andy had retaliated, "Exactly! That's what I'm saying! It's our daughter's wedding! Can't I do this much for her?!" But I guess he realized that arguing with my mother is futile, since she will not rest until and unless she has got exactly what she wants, so he shut up and let Mom order the remaining food in.

The wedding cake was enormous. I am not kidding. It was COLOSSAL, HUGE, BIIIIIIIIIIIG, LARGE. It was six feet tall, in fact the largest pile of dark chocolate I have ever seen. And it was equally delicious. And sinful.

All of us cousins were standing in a circle and eating together. It turns out I have a lot of cool cousins I've never heard of in my life. Obviously, most of them are my relatives from Andy's side, but there are a surprising amount of them related to me directly (through my mom), all residing in Carmel, whom I haven't ever heard of, either. There are: eighteen-year-old Joséfina (or Joey, as she likes it), fifteen-year-old Stèfano (Stef; Joey's younger brother) what's with all the lines over the letter e?, twenty-five year old Wes (fake mohawk, pierced tongue and six tattoos), chubby (that's putting it politely) fourteen-year-old Macy and quite a few more. We had fun together, laughing and talking. Jesse later said that although some of them were weird, they were a good lot.

At around five-thirty, everyone started to go away one by one. It seemed to have gotten dark surprisingly fast. After everybody was gone, Mom said we could go, too. Oh God. I still couldn't believe it was time for the Night. I was so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were all set to go home. Mom and Andy went together in Andy's Rambler, and Sleepy, Dopey and Doc went together in Sleepy's new car – a racing car, obviously – which he had obtained through endless nights of tireless toil as a delivery boy at the Pizza Place. (A/N: lol!) Just like he had planned, Sleepy had fitted his car with expensive speakers, cool tires and a spoiler and everything. It looked like this hot race-thing.

Jesse and I reached the apartment within a couple of minutes. Jesse drove pretty fast, like a 100 km/hr. Wow. I guess he was excited, too.

Anyway, after we got home, I quickly went into my room to change into something more comfortable. Jesse appeared within three minutes in his longest Harry Potter T-shirt (he had got it free in some special offer when he bought the fourth volume, _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_) and boxers. Thankfully, he didn't knock this time, he just burst into the room with this burning look on his face as if he needed something desperately or he would die that moment. Wow. Talk about libido. I was sitting on the bed, waiting. I grinned and stood up to go to him. He grinned mischievously. This was DEFINITELY going to be a naughty night. A very naughty night.

Action. Jesse caught hold of me and started kissing me like there was no tomorrow. He pushed me backward until the backs of my knees were against the edge of my bed and we both fell over, him on top of me.

I tore myself away from Jesse and scurried toward my pillow quickly. He looked surprised when I did this. But he came after me, caught my wrist in an iron grip (not that I minded), pulled me toward him, and we both collapsed again, him on top of me again. Oh my God. This was so much fun. I could totally do this forever.

Soon enough, Jesse's fingers found their way under my shirt, up my back. He unhooked my bra and I took it out. I felt a shiver of excitement go down my spine. I slipped my T-shirt over my head and tossed it across the room, and he did the same while I took mine off. I lay down and pulled the covers over myself. I couldn't believe this myself, but I was feeling kind of shy and nervous now that it was actually time for me to let Jesse see me naked. "Mmmm…" he said, slipping under the covers beside me. "I love you, _querida_." "I love you too," I said, taking hold of his hand under the covers. Jesse started to kiss me again. He moved downward from my lips, nibbling my neck. I felt the blood rushing to my face due to my immense excitement. We were both under the covers.

After about ten minutes of _very_ intense making out, Jesse soon started to ease down his boxers. After that, he slowly pushed my underpants down. Not that I minded. I didn't feel as uncomfortable about this as I had while taking off my shirt, because this time we were under the covers. So it wasn't, like, direct exposure or anything. Jesse moved up to my face. He kissed my forehead, then my nose, my lips, my neck. In this way, he moved down till he was kissing my stomach. I stroked his hair while he did this.

I couldn't believe that I was saying this. "Go slow, Jesse," I whispered gently. "There's no rush. We have the whole night." Now, we'd done this before, but that night when we did it for the first time, we were, after all, under the influence of alcohol, so I did not remember anything further than stumbling into my room and changing into my tracks that night. If we had done it in our senses (impossible), Jesse would have mostly likely said, "I'd rather wear a clown's suit and do the jig in the public square rather than have unprotected sex with you, Susannah." Except, of course, he wouldn't have been that blunt about the last part of the sentence, but whatever. You get my point. He would _never_ agree to have sex with me without a condom in a trillion years, unless of course, we were _planning_ a baby. It was just a big relief that I hadn't gotten pregnant. STDs weren't something to worry about, because both Jesse and I were both still virgins when we Did It that night.

In reply to my request, Jesse whispered an all right, then moved back up to my face and we started making out again, and made out for about another ten or so minutes. Then Jesse softly asked me if I was ready. I said I was.

So we proceeded to go all the way, for the first time in theorem, since we hand no memory whatsoever of having Done It previously. At the moment when I felt Jesse inside me, I got so carried away that I started breathing in short gasps. I had come. Jesse looked up at me, startled by my gasps, came out, (he was still inside me) and asked me if I was okay. In response, I burst out laughing uncontrollably. Jesse looked more confused than ever. "I came, silly!" I cried between my laughter. "I came!" But Jesse was _still_ confused.

"What do you mean, _querida_?" "Oh God, Jesse!" I cried, trying to stop laughing, but not with much success. "Will I have to spell it out in so many words?" "Oh," said Jesse suddenly, a look of understanding dawning on his face. "_Oh_!" "Yeah!" I said, still giggling. Jesse smiled too, and bringing his face near mine, he kissed me. "I love you." "Mmm…I love you too, Jesse. I love you more than I ever loved anybody in my whole life."

**NEXT MORNING**

I woke up before he did. I opened my eyes, and looked at Jesse sleeping peacefully. I stared at him, playing with that lock of hair that was falling in his face. Suddenly, Jesse shocked me by catching hold of my wrist suddenly. He opened his eyes and smiled, taking my hand and kissing it. I smiled back at him. "Wanna get up right now?" I asked. "Hmm…" said Jesse, thoughtfully. "Do you?" I turned to look at the digital clock on the wall. It said 10:03. "Um," I said. "I think we'd better. It's already ten." "All right," said Jesse getting off the bed. He took the edge of the bedcover, wrapped it around his waist and started to get up. "Hey!" I said. "We're sharing that cover! Leave me some." "Oh," said Jesse, blushing. "Sorry." I rolled my eyes. "Your shorts are here on the night stand, Jesse," I informed him. "All right. Thank you." I picked up his boxer shorts and handed them to him, and he put them on.

Jesse didn't bother wearing his T-shirt before going out of the room. He said he'd find it later. I got up too. I saw Jesse's long T-shirt lying on the floor. I felt too lazy to get up and get fully dressed right now, so I found and put on my underpants and just slipped into Jesse's long T-shirt. It came almost halfway down my thighs.

I went out of the room into the living room, stretching my arms and giving a long yawn. Jesse was already at the stove, making pancakes. They smelt heavenly, especially when Jesse mixed loads of chocolate in the pancake batter, like he had done now. "They smell really good," I said. "Huh?" "The pancakes." "Oh. Thanks."

Jesse finished making the pancakes and took them out on a plate, poured pancake syrup over them, and handed the plate to me. As I dug into them with my fork, I realized that deep down inside, I had always had this small fear that if Jesse and I Did It, things between us would change. But after what happened the last night, I realized that I was wrong. No matter what, things between us weren't about to change in a hurry.

**So people!!**

**Hope you liked the chapter, & that the people with the weak stomachs skipped it!! LOL! Anyway, you know what to do!!**

**--pGp**


	9. It's Time to Rock!

Heya everybody 

**PGP's back with a bang (lol)!!!!! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter (8)!! If you found it too mushy or anything, I promise that this one's different. It's fun to read and there's a piece of shocking news waiting for you out there! And if now your curiosity's burning you up, then there's only one way to put it out…READ!!!!!**

**Happy reading-n-reviewing!!**

**--pGp**

**P.S.: If you don't want to go over the whole story of the Mediators again, then I suggest you give the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh paragraphs a skip!**

Nine 

**IT'S TIME TO ROCK!**

Wow! I can't believe this!!!!!!! Paul and Christie popped over for a sherbet this noon, and they told us some TOTALLY SHOCKING NEWS!!!!! CHRISTIE'S TWO MONTHS PREGNANT!!!!! They said that they had a baby on their minds for a while, but it happened before they could actually give it a try from their sides. But they aren't getting all worked up about it, they've just decided to GET MARRIED!!!! Oh my God!! There isn't enough time to prepare a proper wedding, so they'll just be going in for a quiet church marriage with a few close people, like us, Paul and Christie's parents and grandparents, first cousins and good friends.

And guess what…Paul and Christie want me to be the baby's godmother!!! How cool is _that_. So basically he/she (Paul and Christie are going to the doctor to find out the baby's sex in the evening) will call Jesse and me aunt and uncle! Wow…I can't believe I'm going to be an aunt!! And Paul said that he's kind of hoping that the baby's a mediator, too, so that him and I can teach him/her some awesome ghost busting techniques together! LOL. Christie said that although she hasn't exactly seen me bust any ghosts, Paul's told her enough about all the ghosts I've taken care of (e.g.: Heather Montrose, Maria de Silva Diego, Felix Diego etc.)

"Hey," said Christie, suddenly. "Suze and Jesse! How did you guys meet? You never told me." I laughed. "Well," I said. "This might seem shocking, but Jesse's an ex-ghost." "Huh!" Christie looked shocked. "You mean…you brought him back to life?" "Yeah," I said. "Although we didn't quite mean for it to happen that way!" "What do you mean?" asked Christie. "Explain what exactly happened!" "Okay," I said, taking a deep breath.

"It was this way. I used to live in NY with my mom. My dad had died when I was a kid." "Oh, I'm so sorry, Suze!" said Christie. "Nah," I said. "That's okay. I got to spend quite a few years with him till he moved on!" "Oh! Okay. Go on." "Yeah. So after my dad passed away, a few years later, my mom met Andy, my stepfather. He was a widower with three sons. They fell in love, and got married. But Andy lived here in Carmel, so Mom and I had to move here. When I moved in to my new room, I found that there was a twenty-year-old, _very_ hot ghost who had been dead for a hundred and fifty years – Jesse." Jesse went _very _red when I called him hot. Christie noticed the color in his face and laughed. Paul gave a weird eye-roll.

"Anyway. So, surprising as it may sound, Jesse and I didn't exactly start off our first conversation very nicely. I guess I was kind of crabby because of my jet lag and stuff, so I asked him to get lost. But thankfully, he didn't listen to me. I guess we got to be good friends over the weeks. And I got my first kiss from another guy, and you should have seen the look on Jesse's face! It looked like he wanted to lynch him!" Christie laughed. "I'm surprised! You received your first kiss from another guy in _Jesse_'s presence!" "Uh-huh. Weird, isn't it?" "Totally!" "So, afterwards, this guy who I had kissed turned to be a big baby, so I obviously ditched him. By then, I realized I had fallen for Jesse. Hard. I tried to make myself fall out of love with him, because I realized that we could never have a future together. But it was useless to try. Whenever I needed any help or was in the slightest trouble, who came to my help?" "Jesse." Christie finished. "Yep," I said. "So basically, I loved Jesse silently for nearly a year, enjoying his company as best as I could." "Aw," said Christie. "That is so sweet! But then how did Jesse come back to life?"

"Hmm," I said. "That's a long story! Jesse was actually murdered, and things were not supposed to happen the way they did, so he hung about for such a long time. He was –" I was about to tell Christie how Jesse had been killed, but I figured that it would be unfair to say everything without asking Jesse first. So I softly asked him if it was okay, and he said go ahead. "Yeah," I said to Christie. "Sorry. So he had been murdered on purpose. He had been engaged to his cousin Maria, and was on his way to marry her, and had stopped for the night at a reputed boarding house, which was the older version of my house. But his cousin was meanwhile having an affair with a guy called Felix Diego, a servant of her father's who was also a slave trader. And she knew that if Jesse came to know and broke off the marriage, her reputation would be ruined. So before he had a chance to even find out, she sent Diego to the boarding house to kill Jesse. And that's how he got killed and hung around in his spirit form where he got murdered for a hundred and fifty years. Then I landed up there and began to help him…" "I'll take the story from there, Suze," interrupted Paul. "Okay," I said. "Go right ahead."

"Then I moved into town," said Paul. "And got a major crush on Suze." Christie's jaw dropped. "_You_…had a crush on…_Suze_." "Yeah," said Paul, grinning lopsidedly. "Talk _about_ it," I said, rolling my eyes. "This guy wouldn't leave me _alone_. It was like he'd kill to date me! But of course, I liked Jesse even before Paul moved here, so I totally refused to date him. In fact, he was such an asshole at that time, I didn't even wanna be friends with him." Christie looked at Paul as if he was three-year-old kid who had stolen candy. Paul grinned in a silly manner again. "So basically, I finally got so desperate," continued Paul. "that I decided to time-shift to Jesse's time and prevent Diego from killing him, so that Suze and Jesse would never meet. So she was bound to date me if he didn't even exist for her." "Wait a minute," said Jesse. "_That_'s a part of the story that I _haven't _heard! Go on, Slater." "Paul!" cried Christie, playfully punching him in the ribs. "You're such a creep!" This only caused Paul to laugh harder, the Paul that he was.

"Yeah," said Paul, still smiling. "So I went into time to prevent Jesse from dying, and Suze came after me to stop me, because she couldn't bear to live without Jesse. But she wouldn't stop pestering me, so I tied and gagged her in the barn of the boarding house, where I had gone to warn Jesse. But then, the unpredictable happened – Jesse entered the barn and freed Suze. Suze then realized it would be selfish of her to not give Jesse a much-deserved chance at life he was getting. So, instead of stopping me, Suze transited to my side, and tried to convince Jesse to run for his life."

"We convinced Jesse that we weren't lunatics, and were telling the truth, and he succeeded in killing Diego. But to spoil things, a fire started in the barn. Suze got trapped in a ring of fire, and I wasn't able to rescue her, but Jesse was in a position to do so. So he jumped into the ring and both of them jumped out of a small hole in the side of the barn, while I escaped from another way. But in the chaos and confusion, Suze shifted back to our own time while she was still touching Jesse, and Jesse just got…caught. He was actually not a mediator at that time, so it was virtually impossible for him to survive the transition, because you know, two same souls cannot exist in the same dimension, and time-shifting is only for ghosts and mediators. But then the spirit Jesse came to see Suze at the hospital, where she was sitting by the barely-live _real_ Jesse, watching him die. Then, by another mistake, Jesse, as in the _spirit_ form of him, the one Suze loved, touched his dying body, and got sucked into it. And _bammo_. He's livin' 'gain."

By the time Paul was done narrating the whole story, Christie had a look of utter disbelief on her face, and her jaw was literally hanging down. I couldn't help laughing. "Wow." Christie said, still looking flabbergasted. "Do you guys realize how _lucky_ you are?" "Trust me," I said. "We do." "Of course!" said Jesse. "Anyway," said Christie. "Good story. Quite…unusual!" She looked at her watch and gasped. "Oh my God!" cried Christie. "Paul! We have to go to the doctor's! It's already half past four!" "Oops," said Paul. "Gotta go, Jesse and Suze. We'll see you later!" "See ya," I said. "Goodbye," said Jesse. "Hey!" I said, as they got to the door. "Call us when you know the baby's sex!" "Obviously!" said Christie. "Bye!"

**SAME DAY, 6.00 PM**

I was doing my kickboxing tape in the living room, and Jesse was in his room, collecting all his stuff to move them in to the main bedroom. The phone rang, so I paused the video and picked it up.

Me: "Hello?"

Person on the phone: "Hello. Suze? This is Christie."

Me: "Oh, Christie! Hi!"

Christie: "Hi! I'm on my way back home from the doctor's!"

Me: "OOOHH!! Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Boy!" squealed Christie. "I'm going to have a baby boy! AAAIIIEEE!!!!" "Wow!" I cried. "The doc says that I'll be delivering late March! That means I'll be twenty-one by the time the baby's born, because my birthday is in Jan!" "Oh! Have you thought of any names yet?" "Um," said Christie. "Nope. I guess we'll be thinking! Wrack your brains too! Gimme some ideas." "Okay…" I said. "I'll have to think too!" We both laughed. "Okay, then," said Christie. "Bye! Catch you later." "See ya."

Jesse sauntered out of his room with a pile of T-shirts. "Who was it?" "Christie," I replied. "She's going to have a baby boy!" "Mm-hmm," said Jesse, nodding. "Have they decided what they are going to name him?" "No," I said. "I asked her. She said that they're still thinking. She's asked for some suggestions from our side, too." "Oh," said Jesse. "All right. How about Arthur?" "Ewww!" I said. "That's so old-fashioned, Jesse!" "Ha-ha," said Jesse. "Anyway. How much more time is your video going to last? I could use a little help with my things." "Um," I said. "I think, about another four-five minutes. But I'm going to go in for a shower after it, so you'll have to wait for at least a half hour." "Oh, all right," said Jesse. He turned to go into the master bedroom. "Hey!" I called. "I could use a little company!" "In the kickboxing video you're doing? No, thanks! I'm really no–" "No, silly!" I said, laughing. "I know that kickboxing isn't your thing. I meant to say that I could use a little company in the shower!" Jesse looked at me like I was crazy.

I hastened to put on my video again. "Never mind," I said, hurriedly. "_Querida_," said Jesse. "I didn't say no. Finish your kickboxing, and come inside." "Ooh," I said, shooting him a naughty smile. "All right. Finish taking in your laundry, I'll be done by then!" "All right!" said Jesse. "Hurry!" "Yeah!"

**Okay people,**

**I know this chapter wasn't exactly eventful. Sorry for that, I guess I'm just suffering from writer's block! But I promise I'll be back on track soon. Anyway, **_**PLEASE**_** review!!!!**

**--pisceangirlpower**


	10. Paul & Christie's Wedding

_Hey guys!!_

_I'm back. Sorry for the delay…my chapter was sitting ready on the computer, but my stupid Broadband had conked out, so I finally had to use my dial-up. I don't really have anything much to say, just R&R…  
--pGp_

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Ten PAUL & CHRISTIE'S WEDDING 

Mrs. Windsor, Christie's mom, called her, and later visited. They got to know of the plane-crash Ariel died in on the news. The news report showed no survivors. So I guess the people Ariel said had survived must have died later on, too. Mr. Windsor is managing to control himself, but Mrs. Windsor is inconsolable. Before the marriage, they'll be conducting a small memorial service for Ariel today.

Paul and Christie say that they've decided that for their son, Aunt Ariel will never have existed.

**TWO DAYS LATER**

I'm so excited!! I can't believe it's already time for our honeymoon! Right now, we're busy packing all our clothes and stuff. Our first destination is Goa. We're going to catch the 2 am flight the day after tomorrow. We stay in Goa for a week, then Jakarta for ten days, and then back.

Paul and Christie are getting married at church tomorrow. After the wedding, all the guests will be eating lunch at Paul's grandfather, Dr. Slaski's house. Mr. And Mrs. Slater will be flying in from Seattle for the wedding. Initially, they made a bit of a fuss when Paul told them, because they're both really busy, but when he told them why, they just shut up and booked a flight. That's what Paul told me, anyway.

Paul and Christie are going for a short, simple honeymoon. They'll be going to Paris and stay there for a week. Christie's absolutely thrilled because she'll be able to shop loads for herself and her baby. Paul's moaning a bit because Christie's a way-too-voracious shopper, and is obviously going to blow big bucks at Paris. They too are catching a flight the day after tomorrow, though obviously a different one.

ANOTHER DAY LATER 

Paul and Christie are married now.

For the wedding, Christie wore the most beautiful white wedding dress, with the traditional train, and even an old-fashioned corset and puffy sleeves. She said that it was Mrs. Windsor's wedding dress.

Mrs. Windsor is pretty woman, and looks young for her age; she's fifty, but doesn't look more than forty. She has long platinum hair, which she always ties on top of her head in curly knots. She dresses rather conservatively, too – gray, black and white pantsuits, mostly. You would expect a so-appearing woman to be dignified and serious, but Mrs. Windsor is surprisingly talkative, humorous, and definitely an embarrassing mom like all others.

For the wedding, I wore a slinky black halter dress, which I had owned for a while now, but hadn't got a chance to wear yet. Jesse whistled when he saw me in it. Whistled! Jesse! I must be looking seriously good. I tied my hair in a sexy knot above my head.

After the vows were over, Mrs. Windsor wept buckets. Christie told her to mellow down, because she was embarrassing her with her hysterics. This only made her weep harder.

After the wedding, we went to Dr. Slaski's house and ate at the fabulous buffet Paul's parents had arranged for. The variety was amazing, with three full cuisines.

Paul's granddad Dr. Slaski just sat in a corner in his wheelchair, smiling, his attendant hovering around him at all times. I picked up two glasses of champagne from the waiter's tray and went up to Dr. Slaski.

"Hello, Dr. Slaski," I said to him, smiling and handing him one of the glasses in my hand. "Susannah Simon!" he said, surprising me. I hadn't expected him to speak with so many people around. Anyway, I quickly replied, "De Silva, sir, not Simon. Susannah de Silva." "You got married, eh?" said Dr. Slaski, an amused look on his face. "Finally came to your senses and let your ghost sweetheart move on?" "No," I said, giving a polite laugh. "I brought him back to life and married him, sir." Dr. Slaski looked flabbergasted. "Eh?" he stuttered. "What are you talking, girl? That's not possible," "Yes it is, sir," I said. "Although it didn't happen purposely – it was an accident. I shifted to his time, and while I was shifting back to my time, I was touching him. So he got caught, and fortunately survived. And that's our story." Dr. Slaski nodded, looking impressed. But then he gave me a surprising statement. "I don't believe you," he said, shaking his head. "Show me your husband if what you say is really true. I will question him. If he answers my questions right, I'll believe you." "Okay!" I said, indignantly.

I found Jesse and dragged him to Dr. Slaski. "_Querida_!" he said, startled. "Where are you taking me?" "To Paul's grandfather Dr. Slaski," I said, still dragging him. "He's a mediator, too, and he knew about you since you were still a ghost. He kept trying to convince me to get rid of you at that time, so now he basically got pretty snubbed when I told him our story, and refuses to believe me. So now he wants to ask you stuff." Jesse stuck out his lower lip and nodded. "Okay," he said.

"Here he is," I said to Dr. Slaski, an edge of proudness in my voice. "Ask him what you want." Dr. Slaski nodded. "What is your name?" he asked Jesse. "Jesse de Silva," said Jesse. "All right. Are you a mediator?" "Yes, I am." "Are you a ghost who was brought back to life?" I couldn't believe this conversation was happening. "Yes sir," said Jesse, looking majorly embarrassed. "Is this girl your wife?" "Girl?!" I cried indignantly. "Excuse me, but I'm twenty! I am a _woman_, not a girl." Dr. Slaski ignored me and glared at Jesse for an answer. Jesse gave me a brief glance. "Yes sir, Susannah is my wife," he told Dr. Slaski. I felt a little tingle of pleasure when Jesse said 'wife'. "Okay," said Dr. Slaski. "Go away." HA! Now that he got proof that I wasn't lying, so he's just telling us to go away. I rolled my eyes and walked off. Jesse followed me.

"What was _that_ all about?" he asked, following me to the refreshment table. "Ask that guy," I said, giving another eye-roll, picking up a nacho and scooping up some guacamole with it. "He might be intelligent, but he's way freaky. No wonder Paul used to detest him." Jesse laughed.

After the lunch, everyone started going home one-by-one. Before leaving, Jesse and I said goodbye to Paul and Christie, and to Mr. and Mrs. Windsor. Mrs. Windsor surprised me by sweeping me into a tight hug. She smelt strongly of a very flowery perfume. We tried to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Slater, too, but Mr. Slater was busy yelling "No, no! Today! Today!" into his phone, and Mrs. Slater was tied up attending to Paul's great-aunt, who appeared to have choked on a sip of champagne.


	11. Four Years Later

**Hey people,**

**I've given a time leap in this chapter; hope you enjoy it! The chapter isn't exactly long, but I thought if I tried to stretch it any longer, it would become monotonous.**

**R & R!!**

**--pGp**

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Eleven 

**FOUR YEARS LATER**

Jesse and I now have a daughter. She's three and her name is Olivia, and we mostly think that she's a mediator, too, because we once found her trying to get a grumpy old newly-dead ghost (whom we later helped to move on) to play ring-a-ring-a-roses with her. I got pregnant with her during our honeymoon. Olivia is very pretty – she's totally taken after Jesse looks-wise – the same silky ebony hair and smooth olive complexion. We've got a lot of people saying that she's a really pretty baby. Mom and Andy couldn't help preening over becoming grandparents. Doc's absolutely thrilled to be an uncle. Dopey and Sleepy pretend as if they have a totally 'whatever' attitude towards Olivia, but you should see how their eyes shine when they see her, especially Dopey. Olivia absolutely adores them, too.

Jason is about two and a half months older to Olivia. He's blond like Paul, and looks a lot like him in many ways. Olivia and Jason are best buddies. They're both finishing their first year of playschool.

Right now, we, along with Paul and Christie, are sitting in our living room, toasting glasses of lemonade and laughing. By the time Olivia was born, Jesse had completed his medicine, and become a practicing doctor. We've got a small clinic for Jesse. Jesse's very pleased with his prefix – Dr. Jesse de Silva. He doesn't call himself Hector anymore, and has got his name legally changed to Jesse. We've got a new apartment – a much better one. It's got two full-sized bedrooms and a pretty big living room. The kitchen's not a separate room, it's a kitchenette, part of the living room. The counter is the only thing that separates the kitchenette and the living room. We purposely picked a house with such a kitchenette, so that the person who is cooking (a.k.a. Jesse – he's the one who can cook with that magic touch. I can't cook – period. Though I can whip up a mean bowl of impromptu noodles) can still interact with the others, and isn't cut off.

I hear Olivia wailing suddenly. Before I can get up to see what the matter is, she comes running to me herself, sporting a badly scraped elbow. "Mommy!" she cries, hopping into my lap. "My bow!" "Elbow, not bow," I laugh. That's a little problem with Olivia. Besides the words mommy and daddy, she only pronounces the last syllable of the word she mean to say. We're working on correcting her of this.

I examine Olivia's skinned elbow. It doesn't look too bad after all. "Could you get a Band-Aid, babe?" I ask Jesse. "Sure," says Jesse, getting up and going to the bedroom. Olivia's sobbing now. "Sshh…" I say to her gently. "Olivia's a brave girl, right? Just like Mommy." Paul laughs. Olivia stops sobbing. "Via, ave irl," she says, meaning "Olivia, brave girl,"

Jesse comes back with a Band-Aid and hands it to me. I remove the release paper and carefully stick it over Olivia's elbow. She squeaks while I do this. After I put the Band-Aid on for her, she continues to sit in my lap, starting to play with my hair, one of her favorite things to do.

The next moment, Jason comes up to me with an impatient look on his face. He looks at Olivia, curled up in my lap, and shakes her arm. "Ow!" she cried. "Via hurt!" "Olivia, come and play!" cries Jason. "Jason lonely." Olivia looks up at me with her shining emerald eyes. "Go on," I say. "What are you waiting for?" Olivia gives a playful smile and jumps off my lap, running off to play hide-and-seek with Jason.

When I see Olivia giggling behind Jesse's loveseat, I think – Life's perfect.

THE END

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**Hey readers,**

**I hope the chapter was good!!!!! And if you think this is the last of me, well…THINK AGAIN!! Coz I'm gonna be back with a sequel to ****Haunted a.k.a. Totally Bugged**

**I want you people to send in your ideas to me, about what the plotline should be for the second part…so start typin'!!**

**P.S.: I love you guys!!!!!!!!!**

**--pGp**


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